ARCHAEOLOGISTS have explored a cave in upper Myanmar containing artifacts they believe may date to the Mesolithic period.

The Mesolithic period, or Middle Stone Age, started at the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago and lasted until about 3000 BCE.

The cave is near the villages of Moe Jo Phyin and Wet Soe Gone in Sagaing Division.

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Archaeologists were told about the site by U Maung Maung, a nearby resident who said the cave had for generations been called Batty Cave by locals for its population of bats.

The site was explored on April 27 by the deputy director general of the Myanmar Archaeology Department under the Ministry of Culture, U Aung Kyaing, and a team of archaeologists.

“This cave can be considered the missing link of Myanmar prehistory because it is the first site we believe to be Mesolithic that we have found in the country,” said U Aung Kyaing.

The entrance to the cave is about five feet high and four feet wide, and the inside measures about 15 feet by 15 feet.

The archaeologists found stone artifacts – including broken bracelets, a pounding tool, a scraper and a chopper – that appear to be more primitive than tools that have been found to date to the Neolithic period, which followed the Mesolithic.

The archaeologists collected the artifacts from the cave for further examination.

A veteran Myanmar archaeologist said that if further research proves the tools to be from the Mesolithic period, the discovery will be of great historical significance.

“During the Mesolithic period men started using bows and arrows for hunting and small tools, and also started fishing,” the archaeologist said.

Two years ago Daw Yi Yi Aung, the head of the Archaeology Department of Yangon University, led a group of students in an exploratory expedition to the region where the cave is located.

“We found a lot of objects dating to prehistoric times just lying on the ground. The region was definitely populated by our ancestors thousands of years ago,” she said.