1 See Aung-Thwin, Michael, The mists of Ramanna: The legend that was Lower Burma (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Moore, Elizabeth, ‘Place and space in early Burma: A new look at “Pyu culture”’, Journal of the Siam Society 97 (2009): 101–28Google Scholar.

2 Luce, Gordon H., Phases of pre-Pagan Burma: Languages and history (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 47–76 Google Scholar; vol. 2, chart M and plate 7.

3 Stargardt, Janice, The Ancient Pyu of Burma, vol. 1: Early Pyu cities in a man-made landscape (Cambridge: Publications on Ancient Civilization in Southeast Asia; Singapore: ISEAS, 1990), pp. 212–17Google Scholar.

4 A clay seal inscribed in Prakrit from Beikthano, dated 3rd–4th century CE by K.R. Norman; the Sri Ksetra golden Pali text, silver reliquary and stone urns inscribed in Prakrit, Pali and Pyu, dated 4th–6th century CE by Harry Falk and Ingo Strauch.

5 Luce, Phases of pre-Pagan Burma, vol. 1, pp. 67, 75.

6 Moore, Elizabeth and Pauk, Pauk, ‘Nyang-gan: A preliminary note in a Bronze Age cemetery near Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma)’, in The archaeology of Myanma Pyay (Burma), ed. Stark, Miriam T. and Aung-thwin, Michael A., special issue, Asian Perspectives 40, 1 (2001): 35–47 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bob Hudson, ‘The origins of Bagan: The archaeological landscape of Upper Burma to AD 1300’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Sydney, 2004), abstract and pp. 93–5.

7 Mahlo, Dietrich, The early coins of Myanmar/Burma: Messengers from the past — Pyu, Mon and Candras of Arakan (first millennium AD) (Bangkok: White Lotus, 2012), pp. 33–59 Google Scholar; Htun, Than (Dedaye), Auspicious symbols and ancient coins of Myanmar (Kelana Jaya, Malaysia: Ava House, 2007), pp. 81–93 Google Scholar; Pyu coins are found in hoards in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

8 See articles by Higham; Heng; and O'Reilly and Shewan, this vol.

9 See the present debate on the re-dating of Dvaravati (based until now on surviving inscriptions and art styles), evaluated in Glover, Ian, ‘The Dvaravati gap — linking prehistory and history in early Thailand’, Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 30 (2010): 79–86 Google Scholar.

10 Formed by two brick walls curving into the interior of the walled area c.60 or more metres long, forcing all traffic into a narrow, easily defended defile with wooden gates.

11 The first Pyu habitation site was discovered and partly excavated at Sri Ksetra in Jan.–Feb. 2015: Janice Stargardt et al., ‘Early urban archaeology in Southeast Asia: The first evidence for a Pyu habitation site at Sri Ksetra, Myanmar’, http://journal.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/stargardt348, pp. 9.

12 Stargardt, Janice, Amable, Gabriel and Devereux, Bernard, ‘Irrigation is forever: A study of post-destruction movement of water across the ancient site of Sri Ksetra, Central Burma’, in Satellite remote sensing: A new tool for archaeology, ed. Lasaponara, Rosa and Masini, Nicola (Dordrecht: Springer, 2012), pp. 247–67Google Scholar.

13 The Ancient Pyu of Burma, vol. 1, pp. 343–5.

14 On the uneven density of urban exploitation in Dvaravati sites, see Gallon, Matthew D., ‘Monuments and identity at the Dvaravati town of Kamphaeng Saen’, in Before Siam: Essays in art and archaeology, ed. Revire, Nicolas and Murphy, Stephen A. (Bangkok: River Books; Siam Society, 2014), pp. 330–51Google Scholar.

15 Roland Fletcher, ‘Low density cities’, keynote speech, IPPA Conference, Siem Reap, Jan. 2014.

16 Coordinates, 20° 00'17.81”N x 95° 22'35.16”E.

17 Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, Beikthano, p. 47, pl. 9 and fig. 12; ibid., Sri Ksetra, p. 50, pl. 11 and fig. 14.

18 Coordinates, 18° 48’32.19”N x 95° 17'12.25”E.

19 Stargardt et al., ‘Irrigation is forever’, pp. 247–67.

20 Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, pl. 11, fig. 14, Canal A1, South Tank and North Tank identified by present author; earthen wall excavated by U Myint Aung 1968; Bob Hudson and U Nyein Lwin, field survey 2010–11.

21 Note similar chronology in Bishop, Paul, Sanderson, David C.W. and Stark, Miriam T., ‘OSL and radiocarbon dating of a Pre-Angkorian canal in the Mekong Delta, southern Cambodia’, Journal of Archaeological Science 31, 3 (2004): 319–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, p. 50.

23 For a contrasting view of a shorter period of wall-building, see Bob Hudson, ‘A thousand years before Pagan: Radiocarbon dates and Myanmar's ancient cities’, (3rd version), paper presented at Conference on Early Myanmar and its global connections, Pagan, Feb. 2012), and his map, fig. 21; http://sydney.academia.edu/BobHudson (last accessed 15 May 2014).

24 Ibid.

25 Thaw, Aung, Report on the excavations at Beikthano (Rangoon: Ministry of Union Culture, 1968), p. 9 Google Scholar.

26 Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, pp. 159–60.

27 Ibid., p. 408, table 14; cf. Hudson, ‘A thousand years’, dates slightly recalculated in fig. 20 as 190 BCE–260 CE and 100 BCE–390 CE.

28 Ibid., dates recalculated as 80–550 CE and 210–600 CE.

29 Hudson, ‘A thousand years’.

30 Aung Thaw, Excavations at Beikthano; Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, pp. 177–90, for details on the construction and use of these halls.

31 Ibid., p. 29 (TL tests made at the Oxford Laboratory of Archaeological Science for me in 1988 on behalf of the Archaeology Department of Burma).

32 Pautreau, Jean-Pierre et al. , Ywa Htin: Iron Age burials in the Samon Valley, Upper Burma (Paris: Mission Archéologique Française au Myanmar, 2007), p. 89 Google Scholar; Ni Ni Khet, ‘Les Objets en fer protohistoriques de Haute-Birmanie réalisation d'un corpus classement typologique approches morphologiques et technologiques Volumes I et II’ (Ph.D. diss., Université de Rennes I, 2008); Khet, Ni Ni, ‘The study of iron artefacts from recent excavated prehistoric sites in Samon Valley and the innovative study of archaeometallurgical analysis of iron artefacts’, Journal of the Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science 8, 8 (2010): 279–97Google Scholar.

33 Stargardt, Janice, ‘Urbanisation before Indianisation at Beikthano, Central Burma’, in Southeast Asian Archaeology 1994: Proceedings of the Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archeologists, ed. Manguin, Pierre-Yves (Hull: Centre for South-East Asian Studies, 1998), pp. 126–38Google Scholar.

34 See, however, dates of ceramics at ‘Pre-Dvaravati’ or ‘Dvaravati’ sites in Glover, ‘The Dvaravati gap’, esp. figs. 1 and 2; Khunsong, Saritpong, Indrawooth, Phasook and Natapintu, Surapol, ‘Excavation of a pre-Dvāravatī site at Hor-Ek in ancient Nakhon Pathom’, Journal of the Siam Society 99 (2011): 150–71Google Scholar; Murphy, this vol.

35 See Bellina, Bérenice and Glover, Ian C., ‘The archaeology of early contact with India and the Mediterranean world, from the fourth century BC to the fourth century AD’, in Southeast Asia: From prehistory to history, ed. Glover, Ian C. and Bellwood, Peter (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp. 68–88 Google Scholar.

36 Aung Thaw, Excavations at Beikthano, pp. 20–21.

37 Ibid., pp. 20–22; Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, pp. 177–90; Stargardt, ‘Urbanisation’, pp. 132–7.

38 By U Kyaw Oo Lwin, now Director-General, Department of Archaeology; the site prefix was changed from KKG to BTO. See U Kyaw Myo Win, ‘Beikthano excavations history’, Department of Archaeology, internal report; U Win Kyaing, ‘Beikthano monuments inventory’, Department of Archaeology internal report, 10 May 2013. Departmental officers excavating at Beikthano since 1995: U Kyaw Oo Lwin, U Thein Lwin, U Kyaw Myo Win, U Myo Lwin Kyaw, U Win Kyaing and U Than Zaw Oo.

39 Thein Lwin, ‘Excavations at Beikthano’, PowerPoint report, Nay Pyi Daw, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Ministry of Culture 2007, 2009–10, courtesy of U Thein Lwin, Deputy Director-General, Department of Archaeology.

40 Hudson, ‘A thousand years’, fig. 2.

41 Coordinates N20°.019, E95°.318, excavated by U Thein Lwin in 2003.

42 Data summaries in Nomination dossier, annexe IV.

43 Aung, Myint, ‘The excavations at Halin’, Journal of the Burma Research Society 53, 2 (1970): 55–64 Google Scholar, and Aung, Myint, Research on ancient Hanlin (Rangoon: Private pub., 2010)Google Scholar, fig. 16. In Burmese with English summary, kindly presented by U Myint Aung.

44 Pautreau et al., Ywa Htin, pp. 30–34; Myint Aung, ‘The excavations at Halin’, and Research on ancient Hanlin; Hudson, ‘A thousand years’, pp. 3–4.

45 U Win Kyaing, Principal of the Field School of Archaeology, Sri Ksetra, pers. comm., 2013.

46 Pautreau et al., Ywa Htin, pp. 30–34.

47 Probably originally buried inside late prehistoric all-wooden ritual structures.

48 Report on archaeological work in Burma 1903–04 (Rangoon: Government Printing, 1904), p. 5 Google Scholar.

49 A.H. Longhurst, The Buddhist antiquities of Nāgārjunakoṇḍā, Madras Presidency, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 54 (Delhi: Manager of Publications, 1938); Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, pp. 203–4.

50 Pongkasetkan, Pimchanok and Murphy, Stephen A., ‘Transitions from late prehistoric to Dvaravati period funerary practices: New evidence from Dong Mae Nong Muang’, in Crossing borders: Selected papers from the 13th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, vol. 1, ed. Tjoa-Bonatz, Mai Lin, Reinecke, Andreas and Bonatz, Dominik (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012), pp. 75–89 Google Scholar; Wesley Clarke, ‘The skeletons of Phong Tuek: Human remains in Dvaravati ritual contexts’, in Revire and Murphy, Before Siam, pp. 310–29; and Murphy, this vol.

51 Duroiselle, Charles, Archaeological survey of Burma, Annual Report of the Superintendent 1923–4 (Rangoon: Office of Government Printer, 1925), pp. 25–7Google Scholar, excavations at the Yahandakan village mound.

52 E.g., BTO5, a Beikthano stupa was surrounded by 73 urn burials, excavated by U Kyaw Oo Lwin in 1995–6; reported by U Kyaw Myo Win, and cited by U Win Kyaing.

53 U Win Kyaing, pers. comm., June 2013, Jan. 2015, Sri Ksetra; site visits by author Jan.–Feb. 2015. Burial terraces shown in figs. 3 (Phases 1–3), and 4b, are based on data from U Thein Lwin, U Win Kyaing, and the aerial and satellite imagery (Gabriel Amable and author).

54 U Thein Lwin, then Principal of the Field School of Archaeology, noted ‘complicated Pyu Taiks around the Queens’ cemetery’, pers. comm., Sri Ksetra, 2008.

55 The sites of HMA8, 14 and 52 near Payama Stupa, and the find-site of four royal stone urns at Payagyi Stupa, respectively.

56 Duroiselle, Annual report 1923–4, pp. 27–8; Nomination dossier, annexe IV.

57 Hudson, ‘A thousand years’, fig. 20: HMA47, AMS date 420–570 CE and HMA53, 530–650 CE.

58 Duroiselle, Annual report 1923–4.

59 Duroiselle, ibid., pp. 26–7; Nomination dossier, annexe IV, Sein Maung Oo, 1966–7 HMA8, and pers. comm., 2013.

60 Stargardt, Janice, ‘City of the wheel, city of the ancestors: Spatial symbolism in a Pyu royal city’, Indo-asiatische Zeitschrift 6–7 (2002/03): 163–6Google Scholar, fig. 7.

61 As excavations have not reached the original ground level, the total number of burials is at present unknown; data courtesy of U Win Kyaing, Sri Ksetra, 2013.

62 Nomination dossier, annexe IV, Naing Win 2011–12, HMA53.

63 Courtesy of U Win Kyaing, 2014.

64 Joe Cribb, pers. comm., 26 Nov. 2014; Prof. Osmund Bopeararchchi, 27 Nov. 2014.

65 Cribb, ibid.

66 Photograph supplied by Prof. Bopeararchchi.

67 Mahlo, Coins of Myanmar; Middleton, Sheila Hoey, Intaglios, cameos, rings and related objects from Burma and Java: The White Collection and a further small private collection, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1405 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005), p. 9 Google Scholar; Than Htun (Dedaye), Auspicious symbols.

68 See Revire, this vol., for a comprehensive reassessment of the validity of sectarian attributions; also the papers presented by Joe Cribb, Wannaporn Rienjang (organiser), Kurt Behrendt, Elizabeth Errington, Pia Brancaccio, Robert Bracey and Janice Stargardt at the Symposium on the Bimaran Reliquary, Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge, 11–12 Sept. 2015.

69 Charles Duroiselle, ‘Excavations at Hmawza’, Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report 1926–7, pp. 171–83, pl. 42; Ray, Nihar-Ranjan, ‘Early traces of Buddhism in Burma’, Journal of the Greater India Society 6 (1939): 47–9Google Scholar; Luce, Phases of pre-Pagan Burma, vol. 1, pp. 48–9; vol. 2, pls. 28–34; Stargardt, Janice, ‘The great silver reliquary from Sri Ksetra: The oldest Buddhist art in Burma and one of the world's oldest Pali inscriptions’, in Fruits of inspiration: Studies in honour of Prof. J.G. de Casparis, ed. Klokke, Marijke and van Kooij, Karel (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2001), pp. 487–517 Google Scholar; Lwin, U Thein, Kyaing, U Win and Stargardt, Janice, ‘The Pyu civilization of Myanmar and the city of Sri Ksetra’, in Lost kingdoms: Hindu–Buddhist sculpture of Southeast Asia, ed. Guy, John (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), pp. 63–8Google Scholar; Janice Stargardt, ‘The great silver reliquary of Sri Ksetra; where early Buddhist iconography and epigraphy meet’, in Relics and relic worship in the early Buddhism of India and Burma, ed. Janice Stargardt (forthcoming).

70 Archaeological survey of Burma: Annual report of the Superintendent (Rangoon: Government Printing Office, 1912), pp. 7, 11–12Google Scholar; Luce, Phases of pre-Pagan Burma, vol. 1, pp. 44–5; vol. 2, pls. 5–8, for royal urns except the last.

71 By U Kyaw Oo Lwin.

72 Blagden, C.O., ‘The “Pyu” inscriptions’, Epigraphia Indica 12 (1913–14)Google Scholar, repr. Journal of the Burma Research Society 7, 1 (1917): 37–44 Google Scholar; Shaffer, Robert, ‘Further analysis of the “Pyu” inscriptions’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7, 4 (1942–3): 313–66Google Scholar; Myat, Tha, A Pyu reader (in Burmese) (Rangoon: National Printing Works, 1963)Google Scholar; Luce, Phases of pre-Pagan Burma (vol. 2) chart M, ‘Tircul (Pyu) Inscriptions’; Win, San, ‘Dating the Phaya Htaung’, Indo-asiatische Zeitschrift 4/5 (2000–01): 120–25Google Scholar; Chain, Tun Aung, ‘The kings of the Hpayahtaung Urn inscription’, Myanmar Historical Research Journal 2 (2003): 1–14 Google Scholar, repr. in Selected writings of Tun Aung Chain (Yangon: Myanmar Historical Commission, 2004), pp. 18–32 Google Scholar. A new phase of research began in late 2014 directed by Nathan Hill, in association with the present author, under the ERC Project 609823: ‘Beyond boundaries: Religion, region, language and the state’ (first P.I. Dr Michael Willis).

73 San Win, ‘Dating the Phaya Htaung’: 123, fourth–fifth century; Ingo Strauch, fifth–sixth century, pers. comm., Cambridge, Mar. 2014.

74 Nomination dossier, annexe IV; Kyaw Oo Lwin 1992–3, HMA 31; San Win, ‘Dating the Phaya Htaung’; Tun Aung Chain, ‘The kings of the Hpayahtaung Urn inscription’.

75 San Win, ‘Dating the Phaya Htaung’: 120.

76 Tun Aung Chain,‘The kings of the Hpayahtaung Urn inscription’: 20–21.

77 This epithet is not a common suffix among royal dynasties of India and Southeast Asia of the first millennium CE, contrary to the view expressed in: Buddhist art of Myanmar, ed. Fraser-Lu, Sylvia and Stadtner, Donald M. (New York and New Haven: Asia Society and Yale University Press, 2015)Google Scholar, though that appears to have been its function here. -Varman was widely used in India, Burma and Cambodia as a royal suffix c. the mid-first millennium CE; but Chandragupta II was styled Vikramaditya.

78 San Win argues for a Gupta connection in ‘Dating the Phaya Htaung’: 123.

79 Tha Myat, A Pyu reader, pp. 16–17, gives two other examples of ‘Gupta-Pyu’ from Sri Ksetra which he dates to the fifth century.

80 San Win, ‘Dating the Phaya Htaung’: 120; there is not, as yet, consensus about the exact meaning of the numbers after names, or the era to which the numbers refer.

81 Nomination dossier, annexe IV, SL08, and author's field visit, Oct. 2014, with U Win Kyaing.

82 Sampled by Hudson and dates provided in, ‘A thousand years’, p. 6.

83 U Win Kyaing and Dr Than Htike, then head of the iron furnaces project, Sri Ksetra Field School of Archaeology, pers. comms., 2013; Nomination dossier, annexe IV, SL 07, SL 11.

84 Dr Ni Ni Khet, pers. comm., Sri Ksetra, 2013.

85 Luce, Phases of pre-Pagan Burma, vol. 2, pl. 9, d, e, f; Nomination dossier, annexe IV, SA 26 and SA 30.

86 See Moore, Elizabeth, Early landscapes of Myanmar (Bangkok: River Books, 2007), pp. 129–227 Google Scholar, on walls at early Pyu and Mon sites.

87 Stargardt, ‘City of the wheel, city of the ancestors’.

88 At Beikthano, parts of the North Wall and all of the East Wall were built, firstly of clay ramparts and secondly of brick on top of the clay (2.5 m high), coordinates N20° 164 E95° 371; see also fig. 2 here and for Sri Ksetra fig. 3 here, Phases 1–4.

89 Duroiselle, Annual report 1923–4, trench and walls along the Queens’ cemetery.

90 Stargardt, The Ancient Pyu, pl. 11, fig. 14; Stargardt et al., ‘Irrigation is forever’, pp. 251–3 and figs. 11.3–4; fig. 3 here, especially Phases 2 and 3.

91 Nomination dossier, annexe IV, U Myint Aung 1963–4, HMA4; U Thein Lwin, excavations across the western walls and moat at N18°49’/E95°16’, pers. comm., Sri Ksetra, 2007–8; U Kyaw Myo Win's excavations at the Lulinkyaw gate, Jan. 2015.

92 See fig. 3, Phase 3 for duplication along the western walls and triplication in the southeast corner of city; fig. 7a for close-up satellite image of this triplication.

93 Established by the excavations of U Kyaw Myo Win.

94 Nomination dossier, annexe IV, SL10, Hydrological engineering; ibid., surface and satellite surveys of Gabriel Amable and present author.

95 Samuelson, B.M., Descriptive account of irrigation works — canal and tank systems — in Burma (Calcutta: India Office Library and Records, Irrigation Dept., 1914)Google Scholar; Stewart, J.A., ‘Kyaukse irrigation: A sidelight on Burmese history’, Journal of the Burma Research Society 11, I (1921): 1–4 Google Scholar; Neild, Ralph, Searle, H.F. and Stewart, J.A., Burma Gazetteer, Kyaukse District, vol. A (Rangoon: Government Printing and Stationery, 1925), pp. 43–85 Google Scholar.

96 Stargardt, ‘City of the wheel’, pp. 155–65 and fig. 7.

97 Figure 4b here, and Stargardt et al., ‘Irrigation is forever’.

98 Hudson, ‘A thousand years’.

99 Confirmed by surface survey, U Win Kyaing with the present author, June 2013; the status of the additional walls in this area — whether earthen or brick — has yet to be determined by excavation.

100 This was a particularly sensitive area where water was conducted along a curving but shorter route from the southwest into the East Tank. Fifteen urn burials surrounded this stupa.

101 Stargardt, ‘City of the wheel’, fig. 1, map of Sri Ksetra by the Archaeological Survey of Burma, compiled 1909–20.

102 Hudson, ‘A thousand years’, fig. 21; Hudson, Bob and Lustig, Terry, ‘Communities of the past: A new view of the old walls and hydraulic system at Sriksetra, Myanmar, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 39, 3 (2008): 269–96Google Scholar.

103 Buckley, Brendan et al. , ‘Climate as a contributing factor in the demise of Angkor, Cambodia’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 107, 15 (2010): 7748–52Google Scholar; Stargardt, Janice, ‘Irrigation in South Thailand as a coping strategy against climate change: Past and present’, in Environment and climate change in South and Southeast Asia: How are local cultures coping?, ed. Schuler, Barbara (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 105–37Google Scholar.

104 Stargardt et al., ‘Early urban archaeology’.