Pyu city-states
Beikthano ( ) situated in the irrigated Minbu region (near present-day Taungdwingyi) with direct land access to the well-watered Kyaukse plains to its northeast, is the oldest urban site so far discovered and scientifically excavated site. Its remains—the structures, pottery, artefacts, and human skeletons—date from 200 BCE to 100 CE. Named after the Hindu god Vishnu, the city may be the first capital of a culturally and perhaps even politically uniform state in the history of Burma. It was a large fortified settlement, measuring approximately 300 hectares inside the rectangular (3 km by 1 km) walls. The walls and fortifications along it measured six meters thick, and are radiocarbon dated to a period between 180 BCE and 610 CE. Like most subsequent cities, the main entrance of the walls led to the palace, which faced east. Stupas and monastic buildings have also been excavated within the city walls.
Jade trade in Myanmar
It has been suggested that the production of Burmese jadeite might stretch as far back as the Pyu city-states period in Myanmar (roughly third to eighth centuries CE) on relatively small scales. The first indications of long distance trade of the gem begin during the reign of Burma's King Anawratha (1044) to the kingdom of Nancho (present-day Yunnan province) and Beijing in China.The king, being a religious man and believing that the Chinese emperor possessed the relics of Buddha, wished to obtain some relics from the Chinese emperor in exchange for Burmese imperial jade. This pattern of trading jade for other artifacts has existed since then. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), jade was traded to China through Yunnan via caravan trade, but no notable pieces from this era are known to exist, as the Ming dynasty was more interested in ceramics. Some of the first jadeite artifacts begin to appear in tombs around this time in China. During subsequent dynasties, particularly during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–96), there was an explosion of interest in jade from Burma. The Qianlong Emperor went to extraordinary lengths to obtain green jade, and when the Burmese king refused to provide him with tribute, the emperor went to war against Burma. The war was a disaster for the Chinese emperor. His army suffered multiple failures, leading the Qianlong Emperor to say "my finest soldiers were scalded, divided, driven into gullies like cows in a pond. They perished pile on pile. My generals are a joke." The disgraced general Mingjui committed suicide. After this defeat, the Burmese king agreed to a peace treaty, which was signed in 1770 and allowed the export of jade to China. During the reign of Burma's King Mindon (1857–78), the jade trade flourished and expanded. King Mindon allowed the Chinese lapidaries to locate in Mandalay, where they could buy, process, and trade in jade between Burma and China and within Burma. Those lapidaries were expanded and continue to exist to this day.
Based on artifacts recovered in China, the volume of green jade traded through Yunnan increased through the end of the Ming dynasty and the during the beginning of the Qing dynasty. W. Warry, a member of the Chinese Consular Service on an expedition to Burma in 1888 writes the following about the origin of Chinese demand for jade based on local lore.