Editing Myanmar (section)

=== Prehistory ===
{{main|Prehistory of Myanmar|Migration period of ancient Burma}}
[[File:Pyu city-states map.svg|thumb|[[Pyu city-states]], {{circa|8th century}}]]

Archaeological evidence shows that ''[[Homo erectus]]'' lived in the region now known as Myanmar as early as 750,000 years ago, with no more ''erectus'' finds after 75,000 years ago.<ref name="BLibConfOBMS2015">{{cite web|author1=Win Naing Tun|title=Prehistory to Protohistory of Myanmar: A Perspective of Historical Geography|url=http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/History/Win-Naing-Tun-2015-Prehistory_to_Protohistory_of_Myanmar_A_Perspective_of_Historical_Geography-en.pdf|publisher=Myanmar Environment Institute|access-date=22 November 2016|page=1|date=24 July 2015|quote=Homo erectus had lived in Myanmar 750,000 years ago|archive-date=26 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026014002/https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/History/Win-Naing-Tun-2015-Prehistory_to_Protohistory_of_Myanmar_A_Perspective_of_Historical_Geography-en.pdf|url-status=live}}<br />{{cite book|last=Bowman|first=John Stewart Bowman|title=Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture|year=2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-50004-3|page=476|url={{GBurl|id=cYoHOqC7Yx4C}}}}</ref> The first evidence of ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' is dated to about 25,000 BP with discoveries of stone tools in central Myanmar.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Schaarschmidt|first1=Maria|last2=Fu|first2=Xiao|last3=Li|first3=Bo|last4=Marwick|first4=Ben|last5=Khaing|first5=Kyaw|last6=Douka|first6=Katerina|last7=Roberts|first7=Richard G.|title=pIRIR and IR-RF dating of archaeological deposits at Badahlin and Gu Myaung Caves – First luminescence ages for Myanmar|journal=Quaternary Geochronology|volume=49|pages=262–270|date=January 2018|doi=10.1016/j.quageo.2018.01.001|s2cid=133664286|url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers1/425|access-date=21 January 2020|archive-date=25 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625002707/https://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers1/425/|url-status=live}}</ref> Evidence of [[Neolithic]] age domestication of plants and animals and the use of polished stone tools dating to sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 BCE has been discovered in the form of [[cave painting]]s in [[Padah-Lin Caves]].<ref>{{cite web | last=Cooler | first=Richard M. | title=The Art and Culture of Burma (Chapter 1) | year=2002 | url=http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/cooler/BurmaArt_TOC.htm | publisher=Northern Illinois University | location=DeKalb | access-date=22 March 2012 | archive-date=26 December 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226041623/http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/cooler/BurmaArt_TOC.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Bronze Age]] arrived {{circa|1500 BCE}} when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice and domesticating poultry and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so.<ref>[[#Myint-U|Myint-U]], p. 37</ref> Human remains and artefacts from this era were discovered in [[Monywa District]] in the [[Sagaing Region]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar-travel/myanmar-mandalay/monywa.htm |title=Skeletal Remains of Nyaunggan, Budalin Township, Monywa District, Sagaing Division |author=Yee Yee Aung |publisher=Perspective July 2002 |access-date=7 October 2008 |archive-date=28 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228204723/http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar-travel/myanmar-mandalay/monywa.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Iron Age]] began around 500 BCE with the emergence of iron-working settlements in an area south of present-day [[Mandalay]].<ref>[[#Myint-U|Myint-U]], p. 45</ref> Evidence also shows the presence of rice-growing settlements of large villages and small towns that traded with their surroundings as far as China between 500 BCE and 200 CE.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hudson|first=Bob|title=A Pyu Homeland in the Samon Valley: a new theory of the origins of Myanmar's early urban system|url=http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~hudson/BH2005Jan.pdf|journal=Myanmar Historical Commission Golden Jubilee International Conference|date=March 2005|page=1|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131126021929/http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/~hudson/BH2005Jan.pdf|archive-date=26 November 2013}}</ref> Iron Age Burmese cultures also had influences from outside sources such as [[India]] and [[Thailand]], as seen in their funerary practices concerning child burials. This indicates some form of communication between groups in Myanmar and other places, possibly through trade.<ref>Coupey, A. S. (2008). Infant and child burials in the Samon valley, Myanmar. In Archaeology in Southeast Asia, from Homo Erectus to the living traditions: choice of papers from the 11th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, 25–29 September 2006, Bougon, France</ref>