DATING THE MYANMAR BRONZE AGE: PRELIMINARY 14C DATES FROM THE OAKAIE 1 CEMETERY NEAR NYAUNG’GAN

Abstract

Since 2014 the Mission Archéologique Française au Myanmar has been excavating a prehistoric cemetery, Oakaie 1, adjacent to the famous Nyaung’gan Bronze Age cemetery in Sagaing Division. Oakaie 1 (OAI1) was selected as a Nyaung’gan proxy in order to better understand the Neolithic-Bronze Age-Iron Age chronological transitions in upper-central Myanmar, for eventual regional-scale synthesis. An initial attempt to AMS 14C date 13 human femurs failed due to a lack of collagen but a subsequent effort using an apatite dating methodology on 5 femurs was successful. These preliminary data bracket part of the cemetery from the 9th to 6th c. BC with a 4th-3rd c. BC outlier. Typological and technological analogies between OAI1 and Nyaung’gan pottery grave goods likewise suggest an early 1st millennium BC date for the local Bronze Age.