Archaeology of the Shan Plateau: the Bronze to Buddhist transition

Abstract

The archaeology of the Shan Plateau highlights the role of local knowledge in the shifting religious and social frameworks of the first millennium CE. Artefacts from four river regions (Shweli, Myit Ngeh, Inle and Thanlwin) are compared to illustrate the complex networks that underpinned and prompted the transition from Bronze–Iron chiefdoms to Buddhist kingdoms. New data from discoveries of recent decades are used to widen discussion from sites to regional and trans-regional comparison and begin to bridge the traditional separation of prehistoric and Buddhist archaeology.