Myanmar’s Prehistoric Rock Art: a Comparative Study with Assam and Sri Lanka

By : Win Pa Pa Lwin, Pyiet Phyo Kyaw

Page No: 181-199

Abstract
In Myanmar, rock art is a significant archaeological record because it provides important pictographic evidence of the prehistoric world from the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods. Although there is slight limitation in systematic explorations of Myanmar’s rock art heritage, the investigated rock art sites are substantial in chronological sequence and typological variations for archaeological interpretation. The ambiguous representations of Myanmar rock art are also studied with theoretical approaches by drawing Affordance Theory of James Gibson, an American psychologist, and entoptic phenomenon of archaeologists, David J. Lewis-Williams and T.A. Dowson. Concerning rock art, there are many potential sites to be investigated across Myanmar. The outcomes of systematic studies express prehistoric rock arts predominantly consist of pictographs while petroglyphs and other pictographs across belonged to historical periods. The rock art of Padah-lin, Gabarni and Lewun, located in Shan Plateau, are significant for prehistoric human activities and whereas, the petroglyph of Lemro valley and cliff art of Yekan-aw are historically unique. Lemro valley is situated at the western frontier of Myanmar, in close proximity to Northeast India which is notable for its several petroglyphs. In addition to, Myanmar also shares the opposite shores of the Bay of Bengal with Sri Lanka which has 55 investigated rock art sites, within the Indian-Ocean region. The history of rock art investigations of Myanmar and Sri Lanka is similar with the initiations of foreign scholars and the demand for intensive and technology driven research. The subject matters show some affirmations by depending on their respective ecological settings. In spite of limited research and discoveries, Myanmar’s rock art evidence, are archaeologically significant to correlate a region-wide interpretation within Indian-Ocean world beyond the spatial context of Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Authors
Win Pa Pa Lwin : Tutor, Department of Archaeology, University of Yangon, Myanmar.
Pyiet Phyo Kyaw : Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Yangon, Myanmar.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/SEAR.2025.50.9