page_title: Migration period of ancient Burma
section_title: Earliest migrants amongst Burmese
hierarchical_section_title: Migration period of ancient Burma / Earliest migrants amongst Burmese
context_page_description: Humans lived in the region that is now Burma as early as 55,000 years ago, but archeological evidence dates the first settlements at about 2500 BCE with cattle rearing and the production of bronze. By about 1500 BCE, ironworks were in existence in the Irrawaddy Valley but cities, and the emergence of city states, probably did not occur until the early years of the Common era when advances in irrigation systems and the building of canals allowed for year-long agriculture and the consolidation of settlements, although local mythology dates back to c. 1000-600 BC with the immigration of some people from janapadas, ancient countries in modern-day India.
  The first identifiable civilisation which inhabited modern-day Burma is that of the proto-Burmans, the Pyu, settled in and around Pyay, and in the northwestern Ayeyarwaddy valley e 1000BC. Trace of their presence can be found in Sri Ksetra near Pyay, and in Beikthanoe in central Burma. The Mon are believed to have begun migrating into the area in about 300 BC, and their first Hindu City State Suvarṇabhūmi was centred on the port city of Thaton, which itself was established around 100 BC.
context_section_description: Mons or Talaings, an Ethnic Minority Group of Burma, migrated from the Telangana State, Telangana region of Southern India. They mixed with the new migrants of Mongol from China and driven out the above Andhra and Orissa colonists. The Mon probably began migrating down from China into the area in about 300 BC. In the next decade, Burmese or Myanmar language was gradually derived from Brahmi, Pali and Pyu languages.
  The evidence of the inscriptions, Luce,Journal of the Burma Research Society(volume = XXII,page-121  shows that the Pagan community was mixed up with Hindu Brahmanic cults, Vaishnavism in particular of which had been migrated from southern Mon indianised cities.
  While little is known about the early people of Burma, the Pyu were the first of the modern ethnic groups to migrate into the region, starting around 1500 BCE. Oral tradition suggests that they had contact with Buddhism via seafaring as early as the 3rd century BCE, though definitely by the 2nd century BCE when they received an envoy of monks from Ashoka.  Much of the Pyu's written records have been destroyed through wars.
caption: Trans-Asian trade routes, 1st century CE
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