Mongamo
In Mongamo (also Maingmaw or Mongmao) is the remains of a town of Pyu in today's Myanmar , in Myittha City region and in Kyaukse -Distrikt, southeast of Kume located. The city is close to the Samon and the Panlaung. Especially on the Samon there are many rice fields that underline the fertility of the area and certainly contributed to the wealth of the city. There are also numerous places here that were inhabited as early as the Bronze Age . Mongamo was also conveniently located on trade routes, particularly to China . The Pyu were a people who lived in what is now Myanmar in the first millennium AD and were organized into city-states. Mongamo was one of those states. Mongamo is one of the four largest cities in the Pyu, but has not yet been adequately explored. The site was discovered in 1967 and examined in 1977 by Aung Myint, who excelled in his work in archeology through the use of aerial photography.
The city has three city walls, an inner, a middle and an outer wall. The outer city wall is about 9 km long and covers an area of about 3 × 2.6 km. In aerial photographs it appears as a strongly rounded rectangle. In 1977 the wall was partially up to 3 m high. There are also several city gates, but none of them have been excavated so nothing can be said about their structure. The middle wall is roughly square with a side length of about 1.8 km. The innermost city wall is round with a diameter of about 750 m. The modern village of Mongamo lies within this circular city wall and gave the ancient city its current name. Near the center are the remains of pagodas. Typical for cities of the Pyu is a palace complex in the center of the city complex. However, this has not yet been proven for Mongamo.
Only one building has so far been systematically excavated. It is an almost square building (19.5 × 20 m) with a round core (10.5 m diameter). Here silver coins, models to press floral motifs, a silver bowl with a Pyu inscription and numerous pearls were found. Numerous urns were found around the building, but also outside the city walls. They were filled with ashes and pearls. Miniature vessels and other pearls were also found near the urns.
As there have been only a few systematic excavations in the city so far, exact dating is a problem, but it appears to have been inhabited from the second to the sixth centuries AD.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elizabeth H. Moore: Early Landscapes of Myanmar , Tatien 2007 ISBN 974-9863-31-3 , p. 192
- ^ Moore: Early Landscapes of Myanmar , p. 18
- ^ A b Moore: Early Landscapes of Myanmar , p. 193
- ^ Moore: Early Landscapes of Myanmar , p. 194
- ↑ Pamela Gutman, Bob Hudson: The Archeology of Burma (Myanmar) from the Neolithic to Pagan , In: Southeast Asia, from prehistory to history , edited by Ian Glover and Peter Bellwood, London 2004, ISBN 0-415-29777-X , P. 160