The first evidences of human appearance in Bali date back to the Stone Age, tens of thousands years ago, with the founding of few artifacts that are believed to be reminiscent of small bands of hunter-gatherers. These prehistoric bands lived and foraged in Bali’s jungle and scavenged the tidal pools of the island. Many Paleolithic implements have been found near Sembiran in northen Bali, and there is also evidence in the form of rectangular stone adzes, axes, blades, hoes and picks used by a Neolithic people of Bali.
The most spectacular remains of Neolithic civilization in Bali are remain of Neolithic settlement and a burial site of 100 mongoloid adults and children which were found in Cekik, south of Gilimanuk, West Bali. These are the mortal remains of coastal people who swam the strait and walked across to Bali via land bridge from East Java to Bali in their migration east through the islands from Indochina. Bali was already well populated by the time of Bronze Age began around 300 B.C.
The remains of Bronze Age include clay utensils, stone mounds and bells shaped like two bowls. The people who used these items buried their dead in pottery jars or stone sarcophagi, complete with such funeral gifts as arm and foot rings, beads, highly polished stone tools, bronze and iron implements. The metal objects of Bronze Age are deeply related to the Dongson culture of Indochina. The magnum opus of this civilization is the moon of Pejeng, a glass-shaped-kettle drum made of bronze which is one of the most remarkable archeological artifacts discovered in Bali.
By the Broze Age, Bali population already practiced both wet-and dry-rice cultivation, worked the fields with stone tools and water buffalo, raised pigs and poultry, and developed a sophisticated megalithic culture which made use of menhirs, stone chairs, and stepped pyramids.
The prehistoric period came to an end when Bali established early contact with far more advanced culture of India and China, the leading powers in Far Eastern trade during first centuries A.D. the evidences of this contacts are the Bali Yatra Festival which is celebrated in Kalingga, India, to commemorate the voyage of India’s Hindu priests to Bali and the Chinese annals of the 5th and 6th centuries mentioned a Hinduized state called P’o Li which might have referred to Bali. The remnants of contacts with India can be seen today on the remains of hermitages and monasteries at Gunung Kawi and Goa Gajah, both in Gianyar. Balinese script is derived from the Palava script of South India.
The Indic influences had a significant influence on Bali but they did not come directly from India but through Java. This created a unique Indic-Javanese influence on the history of Bali. The first recorded significant evidence of Indic-Javanese influence was the establishment of the first kingdom in Bali. Singamandawa was the first kingdom in Bali which drew its line from Sanjaya dynasty in Java, established in the area around Mount Batur. Another kingdom with quite similar was Singadwala, which was situated near Besakih with its powerful king Sri Kesari Warmadewa which conquered the former kingdom in 966 A.D.
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