French archaeologists have recently uncovered some assemblages on Myanmar’s lower Kra isthmus that shed light onto maritime Silk Road trading communities beginning in 400 BCE. Given the geographic position of the isthmus between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, the Myanmar sites served as a stopover for Chinese and other east Asian traders headed west, and for Saudi, Persian, and Indian traders headed east. The port sites of Maliwan and Aw Gyi, served as places where maritime Silk Road traders could replenish their supplies, maintain their vessels, obtain local or imported goods, and exchange ideas with other traders. Some of the ideas exchanged included Buddhism, or could have included the political goings on Mauryan India and Han China.
Artifact assemblages from Maliwan provide evidence of habitation and craft production. Beads, rings and seals were produced from stones such as carnelian—possibly imported from India—and rock crystal and agate. Preliminary archaeometallurgical assessment also suggests the presence of copper and alloys such as bronze and leaded bronze. Maliwan and Aw Gyi were also linked to upstream towns or inland extraction sites that provided primary resources, such as minerals, resins, and timber, for long-distance trade.
Preliminary analysis of the archaeobotanical remains has identified domesticated rice and mungbeans (Vigna radiata) in Maliwan. Although mungbeans were first domesticated in the ancient near east, and later shared with the Harappan civilization, archaeological evidence shows that they had reached the Thai-side of the isthmus (in Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong) by about 2500 years ago, and so are considered a local crop in Maliwan and Aw Gyi. The site also yielded terracotta female figurines, a worked stone ring with flower petals, a frieze of animals made in the Indian Mauryan-Sunga style and several steatite-decorated vessels often used as reliquaries in India.
Rice and mungbeans, hmmm. It seems like the rice was a white, short-grain Chinese rice, not a wild Indian rice. But, how would they be combined? In a simple pilaf like the Persian turmeric-laden maash polow, or were beans cooked and pounded and made into fritters like the modern Myanmar dish, Mat pe kyaw? Likewise, were bean sprouts pounded and fried with prawns into Bazun khwet kyaw fritters. A simple thali of mung beans would be possible as would the use of sprouts in a noodle-based dish like the modern Kat kyi kaik, roughly comparable to Pad Thai. Unfortunately, at the moment we only know from mass-spec analysis that the foodstuffs were present, not how the ingredients were prepared.
The Aw Gyi site, closer to the Andaman coast than Maliwan, which is thought to be inhabited in the early centuries ACE, has yeilded Han pottery, as well as fragments of glass of Mediterranean origin. Excavations and analysis is ongoing, and will hopefully provide more evidenceof the lives and habits of the traders on Myanmar’s maritaime Silk Road ports.
Words by Laura M. Kelley
All photos from: Myanmar’s earliest Maritime Silk Road Port-Settlements Revealed
Bérénice Bellina, Maung Sun Win, Kalayar Myat Myat Htwe, Htet Myat Thu, et al., Antiquity