Prehistoric sites in Sri Lanka - caves and tombs
megalithic dolmen Gal Messa in Padavigampola
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Since Sri Lanka was linked to the Indian subcontinent during the last Ice age and the first millenia of the Holocene till around 5000 BC, it shares much of its prehistory with Southern India, in particular a sudden transition from stone age to Iron Age (without intermediate Bronze Age) in the 2nd millennium BC.
There is evidence of more than 120,000 years old prehistoric settlements in Sri Lanka's in coastal deposits. The major finding place of this middle paleolithic period is Patirajawela near Bundala. Excavations in Patirajawela yielded a small-flake stone tool industry, the tools mainly made or quartz, with few on chert. Wellegangoda near Bundala had comparable material that is 80,000 years old. Findings on a smaller scale at Iranamadu near Kilinochchi in the north of the island might be even older than those from Bundala in the south. Until now, no sceletal remains from this period, when Homo erectus inhabited Eurasia, have been found in Sri Lanka and only one on the entire subcontinent, namely the Narmada hominid of central India.
Anatomically modern humans migrated to South Asia around 70,000 years ago. The earliest findings of human bones of Homo sapiens in South Asia, dated 34,000 BP, are not from India but from Sri Lanka, namely from Pahiyangala, also known as Fa-Hsien Lena. This large abri is situated halfway between the southwestern coast and the mountains, in the northernmost foothills of Sinharaja rain forest. Pahiyangala also yielded the earliest known microlithic stone tools of South Asia, up to 48,000 years old, and only recently the oldest bow and arrow of hunter-gatherers ever found outside Africa, which is from the same period as the early microliths found previously.
Though Sri Lanka's dry zone is extraordinarily rich in abris (rock shelters called caves in Sri Lanka, preferred as dwellings by hunter-gathers), the fewer abris of the wet zone region in the southwest are the only known finding places of mesolithic remains in Sri Lanka, they belong to the so-called Balangoda culture. Apart from Pahiyangala near Bulathsinhala, the two best-explored finding places are Batadomba Lena near Kuruwita and Beli Lena near Kitulgala, both at the foot of the highlands. Findings in Belilena indicate that salt was carried from the coast, maybe by traders, as earlier as 27,000 BP.
Around 15,000 BC, the Balangoda culture started growing of oats and barley on Horton Plains. Despite often repeated claims in Sri Lankan newspaper articles and on other Sri Lankan websites, this does not mark a beginning of the neolithic period earlier than in the Middle East, because occasional cultivation of cereals prior to the neolithic revolution is known from many other hunter gatherer cultures in Africa and Eurasia, too, and the same kind of evidence, utilizing radiocarbon-dated pollen, also suggests that it occured much earlier than on Horton Plains already in Egypt and in the Middle East. (Barley seeds from Ohalo II in Israel predate the said earliest barley cultivation on Horton Plains by more than 5000 years.)
A human skeleton found at Godavaya in the very south dates back around 4000 BC. During this period pottery was in use in Sri Lanka. It can be assumed that the island's only large prehistoric megalthic dolmen, the Gal Messa of Padavigampola, is not earlier than that period, as megalithic sites in India are dated to the ceramic period, too, and those of South India often belong to the Iron Age, that started in the 2nd millennium BC in South India. (Though similar in appearance to European megalithic structures, the dolmen and other megaliths in South Asia are much later. There has never been a universal megalithic culture.)
Slag found at Mantai near Mannar indicated the start of copper-working in the early 2nd millenium BC. During the succeeding iron age period, that started in Sri Lanka in the early first millennium, the island shared almost the same farming and pottery und burial patterns as continental South India. The major finding place of iron technology in Sri Lanka is the Aligala cave near Sigiriya. The most prominent cist burial site from roughly the same period is not far away from Sigiriya, Ibbankatuwa is near Dambulla.
A large settlement existed in Anuradhapura already in the 9th century AD. The excavations in Anuradhapura also yielded the earliest known Brahmi letters of South Asia, claimed to predate the Ashoka inscriptions that are usually considered to be the earliest Brahmi writings.
There is evidence of more than 120,000 years old prehistoric settlements in Sri Lanka's in coastal deposits. The major finding place of this middle paleolithic period is Patirajawela near Bundala. Excavations in Patirajawela yielded a small-flake stone tool industry, the tools mainly made or quartz, with few on chert. Wellegangoda near Bundala had comparable material that is 80,000 years old. Findings on a smaller scale at Iranamadu near Kilinochchi in the north of the island might be even older than those from Bundala in the south. Until now, no sceletal remains from this period, when Homo erectus inhabited Eurasia, have been found in Sri Lanka and only one on the entire subcontinent, namely the Narmada hominid of central India.
Anatomically modern humans migrated to South Asia around 70,000 years ago. The earliest findings of human bones of Homo sapiens in South Asia, dated 34,000 BP, are not from India but from Sri Lanka, namely from Pahiyangala, also known as Fa-Hsien Lena. This large abri is situated halfway between the southwestern coast and the mountains, in the northernmost foothills of Sinharaja rain forest. Pahiyangala also yielded the earliest known microlithic stone tools of South Asia, up to 48,000 years old, and only recently the oldest bow and arrow of hunter-gatherers ever found outside Africa, which is from the same period as the early microliths found previously.
Though Sri Lanka's dry zone is extraordinarily rich in abris (rock shelters called caves in Sri Lanka, preferred as dwellings by hunter-gathers), the fewer abris of the wet zone region in the southwest are the only known finding places of mesolithic remains in Sri Lanka, they belong to the so-called Balangoda culture. Apart from Pahiyangala near Bulathsinhala, the two best-explored finding places are Batadomba Lena near Kuruwita and Beli Lena near Kitulgala, both at the foot of the highlands. Findings in Belilena indicate that salt was carried from the coast, maybe by traders, as earlier as 27,000 BP.
Around 15,000 BC, the Balangoda culture started growing of oats and barley on Horton Plains. Despite often repeated claims in Sri Lankan newspaper articles and on other Sri Lankan websites, this does not mark a beginning of the neolithic period earlier than in the Middle East, because occasional cultivation of cereals prior to the neolithic revolution is known from many other hunter gatherer cultures in Africa and Eurasia, too, and the same kind of evidence, utilizing radiocarbon-dated pollen, also suggests that it occured much earlier than on Horton Plains already in Egypt and in the Middle East. (Barley seeds from Ohalo II in Israel predate the said earliest barley cultivation on Horton Plains by more than 5000 years.)
A human skeleton found at Godavaya in the very south dates back around 4000 BC. During this period pottery was in use in Sri Lanka. It can be assumed that the island's only large prehistoric megalthic dolmen, the Gal Messa of Padavigampola, is not earlier than that period, as megalithic sites in India are dated to the ceramic period, too, and those of South India often belong to the Iron Age, that started in the 2nd millennium BC in South India. (Though similar in appearance to European megalithic structures, the dolmen and other megaliths in South Asia are much later. There has never been a universal megalithic culture.)
Slag found at Mantai near Mannar indicated the start of copper-working in the early 2nd millenium BC. During the succeeding iron age period, that started in Sri Lanka in the early first millennium, the island shared almost the same farming and pottery und burial patterns as continental South India. The major finding place of iron technology in Sri Lanka is the Aligala cave near Sigiriya. The most prominent cist burial site from roughly the same period is not far away from Sigiriya, Ibbankatuwa is near Dambulla.
A large settlement existed in Anuradhapura already in the 9th century AD. The excavations in Anuradhapura also yielded the earliest known Brahmi letters of South Asia, claimed to predate the Ashoka inscriptions that are usually considered to be the earliest Brahmi writings.
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