VOLUME 5 / Section 16 ( The prehistory of Asia and Oceania)
@ 1998, by A.B.A.C.O. s.r.l, Forli, Italy.
Pages 277-285
XIII U. I. S. P. P. Congress Proceedings- Forli, 8 – 14 September
1996 Pre- and protohistoric settlement in Sri Lanka
S. U. Deraniyagala
Director-General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka
ABSTRACT
Sri Lanka is an island off the southern tip of India. There is
secure evidence of settlements in Sri Lanka by 130,000 years ago, probably
by 300,000 BP and possibly by 500,000 BP or earlier. Palaeo-environmental
investigations indicate that interglacials correlated with increased atmospheric
activity over the island - which was manifested in correspondingly increased
rainfall on the windward aspect of the central mountains and increased
desiccation on the leeward side due to the drying foehn effect of katabatic
winds. This model has been transposed to the eight major ecozones of the
country with their respective prehistoric carrying capacities fluctuating
in phase with climatic shifts. Population densities in these ecozones have
been estimated for the Quaternary on the basis of ethnographic analogy.
Subsistence strategy has also been assessed through archaeological evidence
against a backdrop of ethnographic analogy and postulated biotic resources
that would have been available for exploitation by Quaternary foragers.
At the commencement of the 1st millennium BC, there are indications
of a rapid transition from a geometric microlith-using Mesolithic culture
to the Early Iron Age, with horse, cattle, pottery and paddy cultivation.
It is proposed that with iron technology (for clearing hitherto intractable
equatorial rainforest) a greatly enhanced food production capability increased
carrying capacity several-fold, thus attracting long distance links with
India. The latter possibly involved migrations, of which the Indo-Aryan
Sinhalese language (which was in use in Sri Lanka since at least 500 BC)
could be but one manifestation.
PREHISTORY
Palaeolithic
During the last one million years, when humans are known to have
existed in various parts of India (v. Mishra 1995), Sri Lanka was connected
to the sub-continent on numerous occasions. The rise and fall of sea level
(due to cold/warm fluctuations in the global climate) determined the periodicities
of these connections, the last separation having occurred at ca. 7000 BP
(Deraniyagala 1992: 167). Hence it is impossible to view Sri Lankan prehistory
in isolation from India.
It is very likely that the first settlers
from India had reached Sri Lanka at least as early as one million years
ago - perhaps earlier. So far, evidence on this score has not been forthcoming,
but this need not signify that there were no humans in Sri Lanka at that
period. Environmentally there would have been no hindrance whatsoever to
hominid settlement, in terms of both accessibility and exploitable food
and water.
There are, however, ancient coastal sands in the north and southeast
of the island which could be as early as 250,000 (or even 700,000-500,000)
BP (ibid: 686, 688). Whether these sands contain evidence of human habitation
has yet to be determined, a prime research goal for the future.
By about 125,000 BP if is certain that there were prehistoric settlements
in Sri Lanka (ibid.: 686). The evidence stems from excavations conducted
in coastal deposits near Bundala.These people made tools of quartz (and
a few on chert) which are assignable to a Middle Palaeolithic complex (ibid.:
252-4,458,688). Apart from such tools, no other vestiges of their culture
have survived the ravages of time and tropical weathering: we do not know
what these people looked like, although it can be guessed that they were
early Homo sapiens sapiens akin to anatomically modern South Asians. Even
the sizes of their settlements are not known due to the limited scale of
the evaluation excavations; surface indications are ca.50 square metres
or less per site. That they lived by hunting and gathering is obvious and
it is probable that this conformed to the pattern discernible in the activities
of their descendants some 100,000 years later. We do know, however, that
the physical and biotic environments of these early humans, from the Middle
Pleistocene onwards, fluctuated between pluvial and interpluvial episodes
(ibid.: 178-82, 436-40; id. 1991: 14-7) with corresponding oscillations
in animal and food-plant resources which would have been reflected in shifts
in human population densities. It is estimated that during certain pluvial
episodes in South Asia, as at ca. 125,000 BP, The population density in
the Dry Zone of northern, eastern and southern Sri Lanka (for ecozones
v. ibid.: app. I) could have ranged between 1.5 and 0.8 individuals per
square kilometre, whereas the Wet Zone in the west would have had densities
of 0.1 or less. It has been hypothesised that interpluvials witnessed a
narrower dichotomy in the zonal population densities, the respective estimates
being less than 0.3 for the Dry Zone and over 0.1 for the Wet Zone. These
figures are derived from ethnographic sources pertaining to South and Southeast
Asian hunter-gatherers. Given the postulated densities of the food supplies,
it is unlikely that large communities in excess of a couple of nuclear
families were the norm, except perhaps along the northern and eastern coasts
with their rich resources of marine foods (id. 1992: 178-82, 436-44).
Mesolithic
From about 34,000 BP onwards the prehistoric record is very much more
complete. The information stems from a series of cave excavations in the
lowland Wet Zone: Fa Hien Lena near Bulathsinhala (34,000?5400 C14 BP),
Batadomba-lena near Kuruwita (28,500-11,500 C14 BP), Beli-lena at Kitulgala
(over27,000-3500 C14 BP), Alu-lena at Attanagoda near Kegalle (10,500
C14 BP). These data are supplemented by those from the open-air site of
Bellan-bandi Palassa near Embilipitiya (6500 TL BP). The dating is based
primarily on radiocarbon assays on charcoal, checked independently against
thermoluminescence dating in the case of Beli-lena. There are over 50 such
dates from various contexts at these sites and the chronological framework
may be pronounced secure (ibid.: 695-701).
Fa Hien
Lena has yielded the earliest evidence (at ca. 34,000 C14 BP) of anatomically
modern man in South Asia, followed by Batadomba-lena at 28,500 and 16,000,
Beli-lena at 13,000, Fa Hien at 6900, Bellan-bandi Palassa at 6500 and
Fa Hien again at 4800 BP. These human remains have been subjected to detailed
physical anthropological study and it has been affirmed that the genetic
continuum from at least as early as 16,000 BP at Batadomba-lena to Beli-lena
at 13,000 BP to Bellan-bandi Palassa at 6500 BP to the recent Vadda aboriginal
population is remarkably pronounced (ibid.: 468-9; Kennedy 1974; Kennedy
et al. 1987; the earlier material from Fa Hien Lena is too fragmentary
for such comparative study). This suggests a backwater in terms of population
dynamics. It appears to have been a remarkably static situation over so
long a period, relatively undisturbed by the arrival of new populations
with diverse physical traits. These anatomically modern prehistoric humans
in Sri Lanka are referred to as Balangoda Man in popular parlance (derived
from his being responsible for the Mesolithic 'Balangoda Culture' first
defined in sites near Balangoda). He stood at an estimated height of ca.
174 cm for males and 166 cm for females in certain samples, which is considerable
when compared with present-day populations in Sri Lanka (v. Deraniyagala
1992: 330-4). The bones are robust, with thick skull-bones, prominent brow-ridges,
depressed noses, heavy jaws and short necks. The teeth are conspicuously
large. These traits have survived in varying degrees among the Vaddas and
certain Sinhalese groups, thus pointing to Balangoda Man as a common ancestor.
It needs to be borne in mind, however, that there would have been unimpeded
gene-flow between southernmost India and Sri Lanka (in both directions)
from the Palaeolithic onwards, and that future research will probably reveal
a whole range of genetic clusters in the prehistoric populations of this
region, which would invalidate the concept of Balangoda Man as a homogeneous
'race' (cf. id. 1990: 17,20).
Meanwhile, Balangoda Man continues to be a useful working concept,
referring to the island's late Quaternary humans. He appears to have settled
in practically every nook and corner of Sri Lanka ranging from the damp
and cold High Plain's such as Maha-eliya (Horton Plains) to the arid lowlands
of Mannar and Vilpattu, to the steamy equatorial rainforests of Sabaragamuwa.
The camps were invariably small, rarely exceeding 50 sq. m in area, thus
suggesting occupation by not more than a couple of nuclear families at
most (id. 1992: 351). This life-style could not have been too different
from that described for the Vaddas of Sri Lanka, the Kadar, Malapantaram
and Chenchus of India, the Andaman lslanders and the Semang of Malaysia
(ibid.: 412-21, 451-7). They would have been moving from place to place
on an annual cycle of foraging for food. The well preserved evidence from
the caves and Bellan bandi Palassa indicates that a very wide range of
food-plants and animals were exploited. Among the former, canarium nuts,
wild breadfruit and wild bananas are prominent. It is probable that dioscorea
yams, such as Dioscorea spicata, D. pentaphylla and D. oppositifolia were
staples in the diet, as they were among South Asian hunters and gatherers
in recent times. It appears as if every conceivable type of animal had
been eaten, ranging from elephants to snakes, rats, snails and small fish
(ibid.: 451-2). This diet would have been well balanced as attested by
the robusticity of the human skeletal remains. The degeneration of bone
that accompanies a specialised starchy diet and a sedentary life style
had yet to set in.
The tool kit of Balangoda Man is distinguished by the occurrence of
geometric microliths, comprising small (less than 4 cm long) flakes of
quartz and (rarely) chert fashioned into stylised lunate, triangular and
trapezoidal forms (ibid.: 266-70, 688-94). Such geometric microliths have
traditionally been considered the hallmark of the Mesolithic period as
first defined in Europe. The earliest dates for the geometric microlithic
tradition in Europe are around 12,000 BP. Hence it came as a surprise when
such tools were found as early as 28,500 C14 BP at Batadomba-lena, 28,000
BP at two coastal sites in Bundala and over 27,000 BP at Beli-lena. Sri
Lanka has yielded evidence of this sophisticated technological phase some
16,000 years earlier than in Europe. However, this apparent anomaly has
been resolved by the discovery of geometric microliths in various parts
of Africa, such as Zaire and southern Africa, from contexts in excess of
27,000 BP, thereby suggesting that Europe was late in manifesting this
techno-tradition due to as yet undefined reasons.
Apart from stone tools, artefacts of bone and antler are quite prolific
from 28,500 BP onwards, notably small bone points (ibid.: 278-81). Beads
of shell have also been discovered from these early contexts and the occurrence
of marine shells in inland sites such as Batadomba-lena points to an extensive
network of contacts between the coast and the hinterland. There is evidence
from Beli-lena that salt had been brought in from the coast at a date in
excess of 27,000 BP (ibid.: 326).
Sri Lanka has yet to produce unequivocal evidence of Stone Age art.
The cave art observed in various parts of the Dry Zone are the works of
Vaddas, as demonstrated by ethnographers, although a certain proportion
of it could conceivably be prehistoric (ibid.: 465). Similarly there is
little evidence of manifestations of ritual. There are, however, clear
that the norm was for Balangoda Man to inter his dead as secondary burials
within his camp floors, having selected certain bones for this purpose;
and at Ravanalla cave and Fa Hien Lena red ochre had been ceremonially
smeared on the bones. Both these practices have been matched by the mortuary
customs of the Andaman Islanders, but not by those of the Vaddas. It is
possible that the latter, through a process of cultural retrogression,
ceased to practise the more elaborate mortuary customs of their ancestors
(ibid.: 465-7, 696).
PROTOHISTORY
Neolithic/Chalcolithic
The transition from the Mesolithic Balangoda Culture to the protohistoric
Early Iron Age has been inadequately documented in Sri Lanka. Almost invariably,
the relevant transitional deposits have been disturbed due to the extraction
of fertiliser from prehistoric cave habitations. Recent excavations in
the cave of Dorawaka-kanda near Kegalle could somehow have resolved this
impasse. According to the excavator, W.H. Wijayapala, there are indications
at this site of pottery (together with stone stools) being used as early
as 6300 C14 BP, and possibly the cultivation of a cereal in these contexts
(ibid.: 734; W.H Wijayapala 1992 in id. ip). The final analyses and the
site report pend.
The excavator's views are plausible since (a) the southern Indian Neolithic
period is at least as old as 2000 BC and (b) a plain red ware precedes
the ceramic termed Black and Red Ware at Dorawaka-kanda. The latter ware
has been dated to ca. 900 BC at Anuradhapura and hence the red ware might
predate it at Dorawaka-kanda. The typical polished axes, pottery and cultivants
of the peninsular Indian Neolithic have yet to be discovered in Sri Lanka,
and one can but assume that until the Dorawaka-kanda data prove it otherwise
the existence of Neolithic period on the island has not been established
as yet.
The most recent radiocarbon dates to provide a chronological upper
boundary for the 'Mesolithic' geometric microlithic industry in Sri Lanka
are ca. 1800 BC at Mantai and ca. 1500 BC at Beli-lena (Deraniyagala 1992:
698, 701). The latter could have domesticates or pottery in association
(report pending). The discovery of a few pieces of copper-working slag
from this 'Mesolithic' context at Matota could signify the first identification
of a Chalcolithic horizon in Sri Lanka, contemporaneous with the securely
dated Chalcolithic of peninsular India. The slag, however, could have intruded
into the sample from this otherwise carefully excavated context, perhaps
through incorrect labelling. No pottery was found in association. Further
sampling is required to clarify these points. It is now known that the
only major source of copper ore south of Madhya Pradesh in central India
is located at Seruvila in eastern Sri Lanka (Seneviratne 1994). It is very
likely that this was known to the Chalcolithic peoples of India and that
Sri Lanka exploited this resource. Mantai could well have been a port for
shipping copper to India.
Neolithic settlements in northern India are said to occur as far back
as 6500-5000 BC (Misra 1989: 26). It is probable that peninsular
India and Sri Lanka have yet to be discovered parallels. By 2000 BC, if
not much earlier, peninsular India had a fully fledged Chalcolithic. The
search for Neolithic/Chalcolithic settlements in Sri Lanka needs to focus
on finding faunal or plant domesticates, pottery, or evidence of copper-alloy
working, in contexts predating the Early Iron Age. It is probable that
these would be found in association with geometric microliths which would
otherwise be assigned to the Mesolithic. If is noteworthy that the Neolithic/Chalcolithic
stone artefacts in peninsular India display microlithic (Mesolithic) vis
à vis blade (Neolithic/Chalcolithic) traits progressively as one
moves southwards (ibid.: 285-6,297: Allchin and Allchin
1974; 1974a).
Early Iron Age
The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself
in South India by at least as early as 1200 BC, if not earlier (Possehl
1990; Deraniyagala 1992: 734). The earliest manifestation of this in Sri
Lanka is radiocarbon dated to ca. 1000-800 BC at Anuradhapura and Aligala
shelter in Sigiriya (Deraniyagala 1992: 709-29; Karunaratne and Adikari
1994:58; Mogren 1994: 39); the Anuradhapura dating is now corroborated
by Coningham 1996). It is very likely that further investigations will
push back the Sri Lankan lower boundary to match that of South India.
The settlement at Anuradhapura exceeded
10 hectares in extent by ca. 800 BC, and it was at least 50 ha by ca. 700-600
BC and thus already a ‘town’ (cf. Allchin 1989: 3). So far no other settlements
of the Early Iron Age have been located in Sri Lanka (with the exception
of the very small-scale deposit within the rock-shelter at Aligala). Potential
sites are Kandarodai, Matota (Mantai), Pilapitiya in Kelaniya and Tissamaharama;
but the evidence has yet to surface (Deraniyagala 1992: 730-2, 735).
The 'Megalithic' Early Iron Age mortuary
complex of Sri Lanka (Seneviratne 1984) is akin to that of peninsular India.
It falls primarily, or possibly totally, within the protohistoric period,
as indicated by its radiocarbon age of 750-400 BC at the only site to have
been dated, Ibbankatuwa (v. Bandaranayake and Kilian in Deraniyagala 1992:
734). The place of this mortuary trait within the overall Early Iron Age
culture in Sri Lanka is as yet indeterminate. It is noteworthy that these
cemeteries do not have contemporaneous settlements associated with them,
for instance at Ibbankatuwa (Karunaratne 1994). Conversely, the Early Iron
Age settlement at Anuradhapura does not have a Megalithic cemetery to which
it can even remotely be linked. The Megalithic mortuary complex could possibly
have been associated with just a special group of people, such as pastoralists,
on the periphery of those who occupied Anuradhapura (cf. Leshnik 1974).
In short, what this signifies is that the Megalithic mortuary trait is
but a discrete facet of the protohistoric Early Iron Age culture complex
of India which had its distribution from the Gangetic valley down to Sri
Lanka with regional variations. Hence it is misleading to refer to a Megalithic
Culture, as several scholars are apt to, since this mortuary trait is not
necessarily a concomitant of the Early Iron Age of peninsular India or
Sri Lanka. Similarly, the Black and Red Ware ceramic tradition is a hallmark
of much of the sub-continent's Early Iron Age (except in the northwest)
and is not confined to the Megalithic mortuary facies in peninsular India,
a point that is frequently overlooked. There is a tendency to equate the
Black and Red Ware ceramic with the Megalithic complex on a one-to-one
basis, thereby distorting the basis of interpretations from the outset.
It is important, therefore, that the nature of this interrelationship between
(a) the total Early Iron Age complex of the sub-continent, (b) its Black
and Red Ware ceramic complex and (c) the Megalithic cemetery complex in
southern India and Sri Lanka be kept clearly in mind, so as to avoid confusion
in interpreting the archaeological record (Deraniyagala 1992: 734). The
Sri Lankan data need to be interpreted against the backdrop of the total
sub-continental Early Iron Age, since medium- to long-range cultural diffusion
appears to have been prevalent.
The biological anthropology of Early Iron Age man in Sri Lanka is distinct
from that of Balangoda Man, although the evidence from the only Megalithic
site to have been assayed, Pomparippu (undated), suggests a certain
degree of miscegenation. This could have occurred considerably prior to
500 BC (and after Bellan-bandi Palassa at 4500 BC) (ibid.: 736; Kennedy
in Begley et al. 1981). What attracted these people who intruded on the
scene at this early date? It is probable that the agricultural potential
of Sri Lanka, notably its abundant supplies of water, with iron technology
to subjugate the dense equatorial rainforest and heavy soils, was a major
factor. Other attractions could have been the pearl banks in the northwest
of the island (for Early Historic v. Mahroof 1992: 110), the major copper
ore source at Seruvila, and the island's location as an entrepot for long-distance
trade between Southeast Asia and West Asia (note that black pepper in pharaonic
Egypt of the 2nd millennium BC could only have come from Kerala, Sri Lanka
or Southeast Asia). Thereafter, Sri Lanka's attraction for settlers from
further afield than South India appears to have gained rapidly. This swell
coincided with the so-called Second Urbanisation of the Indo-Gangetic Plain
(v. Allchin 1995). As mentioned earlier, Anuradhapura was at least 10 ha
in extent by ca. 900 BC (perhaps much more). By then prehistoric stone
tool technology had been completely superseded by that of iron at this
site, other advanced traits being the manufacture of copper-alloy artefacts,
high-quality pottery (notably Black and Red Ware), the breeding of cattle
and horses, and the cultivation of rice. By 700-500 BC, Anuradhapura exceeded
50 ha. The phenomenon of the Indian Second Urbanisation would appear to
have manifested itself unexpectedly early in Sri Lanka, either through
rapid stimulus diffusion, or convergent evolution due to a stimulus from
further afield such as long-distance trade, or (more likely) a combination
of both.
TRANSITION TO THE HISTORICAL PERIOD
The Early Iron Age of Sri Lanka, at ca. 1000-500 BC, is referred to
as protohistoric since there is no evidence of writing in this period.
At ca. 600-500 BC, the first appearance of writing (in Brahmi almost identical
to the Asokan script some 200 years later) heralds the commencement of
the Early Historic period (Deraniyagala 1992: 739-50). This writing, radiocarbon
dated on charcoal and checked by thermoluminescence dating, is inscribed
on potsherds signifying ownership. Among the names was Anuradha, which,
coincidentally or otherwise, is stated in the ancient chronicles to have
been the name of a minister of prince Vijaya, the purported 'founder' leader
of the Sinhalese, at ca. 500 BC.
The new chronology for the beginnings
of writing has thus revolutionised our concept of the lower boundary of
the historical period of South Asia (for revised periodisation v. ibid.:
714). It has pushed it back by at least two centuries - into the times
of the Buddha. Coeval with the first appearance of writing at Anuradhapura
is the rise of new pottery forms (such as Early Historic Black and Red
Ware) and wares (eg, a medium-fine grey ware, possibly a North Indian import),
mutisalah red glass beads (for North India 600-400 BC v. Basa 1992: 97)
and what appear to be writing styli made of bone (Deraniyagala 1992: 714).
One suspects a pan-lndia wave of cultural impulses that manifested itself
in these material transformations. It is possible that some long-distance
migrations, as evinced in the legend of Prince Vijaya's arrival in Sri
Lanka from North India, were concomitant to this phenomenon.
The earliest (600-500 BC) inscriptions
on pottery at Anuradhapura, whenever adequately complete to be linguistically
diagnostic, are in Indo-Aryan Prakrit. This situation is repeated in the
earliest inscriptions found in Megalithic Kodumanal, and possibly in the
lowermost levels of Arikamedu as well, in South India (ibid.: 745-6; Casal
1949; Rajan 1990). So far none of them are in Dravidian. If appears
to corroborate the view that Indo-Aryan was pre-dominant from at least
as early as 500 BC in Sri Lanka, as affirmed in the chronicles concerning
an Aryan impulse associated withVijaya. The views of Parpola (1984; 1988;
v. Deraniyagala 1992: 749-8) are relevant in this regard. They are bold
and provocative, and they merit serious consideration. He postulates long-distance
southward migrations of ruling Indo-Aryan elites at ca. 500 BC and argues
his case well.
The prime mover for these impulses
is difficult to isolate. The urban centres of the Ganges plains could well
have constituted the nodes from which they went out, centrifugally, to
be developed in the provinces and returned centrepetally to those original
nodes as a feedback phenomenon, thus creating a relatively closed interactive
system. On the other hand, one cannot discount the possibility of inputs
at the same time from West Asia, the Mediterranean and China. It is probable
that this latter aspect has been greatly underestimated. The idea of devising
the Brahmi script might have arisen through contact with Semitic trading
scripts from West Asia (Deraniyagala 1992: 744; note the passing reference
above to postulated long distance trade during the protohistoric Early
Iron Age extending into Southeast Asia and West Asia). Whatever the mechanism
for the onset of urbanism in Sri Lanka, by 500 BC it was ready to accelerate
into the Early Historic period. By the time of Emperor Asoka in the third
century BC, the city of Anuradhapura was nearly 100 ha in extent (ibid.:
712-3), making it (on present estimates) the tenth largest city in India/Sri
Lanka at that time and the largest south of Ujjain and Sisupalgarh, both
in northern India (Allchin 1989: 3, 12). Buddhism had by then taken root
as the formal belief system of the island and technologically the concept
of irrigated agriculture, probably introduced during the Early Iron Age,
developed into sophisticated and large-scale systems which served as the
economic foundation of the correspondingly complex settlement configurations
of the Early Historic period.
DISCUSSION
The prehistoric population densities in Sri Lanka during the Upper
Pleistocene and much of the Holocene would have been sparse, estimated
at ca. 0.1-0.8 individuals per square kilometre. These densities might
have increased with the advent of iron technology and farming at ca. 1000
BC. However, there is a pronounced scarcity of Early Iron Age sites on
the island. This does not simply reflect inadequate sampling, although
perhaps partially so. It signifies that, despite iron and farming technology,
Sri Lanka's attraction for an Early Iron Age economy was not compelling
enough to manifest itself in numerous settlements. The number of the latter
increases very markedly during the succeeding Early Historic period (500
BC - 300 AD) and much more so during the Middle Historic (300-1200 AD)
when sites such as Anuradhapura and Mantai are at their grandest and a
great proliferation is observed in settlements throughout the Dry Zone
(cf. Solheim and Deraniyagala 1972). One, perhaps simplistic, comment is
that iron technology and farming were not the only factors responsible
for the progressive burgeoning of settlements in the Early and Middle Historic
periods. A third element appears to have entered the equation: increasing
medium- and long-distance trade leading to a corresponding increase in
wealth which acted as the catalyst for an exponential increase in the density
of settlements. Systematic surveys to test this hypothesis and to delineate
the nature of this progression is very much a research priority in the
archaeology of Sri Lanka.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALLCHIN F.R., 1989. City and state formation in Early Historic South Asia. South Asian Studies 5:1-16.
ALLCHIN F.R.(ed.),1995. The archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: part II. Cambridge University Press.
ALLCHIN F.R. and ALLCHIN B ., 1974. The relationship of Neolithic and late settled communities with those of Late Stone Age hunters and gatherers in peninsular India. In: Sharma and Jha ed. (1974):45-66.
ALLCHIN F.R. and ALLCHIN B., 1974a. Some new thoughts on Indian cattle. In: van Lohuizen-de Leeuw and Ubaghs ed. (1974):71-7.
BANDARANAYAKE S. and MOGREN M. (ed.), 1994. Further studies in the settlement
archaeology of the Sigiriya-Dambulla region. Sri Lanka, University of Kelaniya:
Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology.
BASA K.K., 1992. Early glass beads in India. South Asian Studies 8:91-104.
BEGLEY V., LUKACS J.R. and KENNEDY K.A.R., 1981. Excavations of Iron
Age burials at Pomparippu. Ancient Ceylon 4:51 - 132.
CASAL J.M., 1949. Fouilles de Virampatnam-Arikamedu. Paris: Commission
de Fouilles Archaeologiques.
CONINGHAM R.A.E, 1996. Radiocarbon dates for Anuradhapura: preliminary
report. MS.
DERANIYAGALA S.U., 1991. Man and environment during the Pleistocene
in Sri Lanka.
Indo-Pacific Prehistoric Assn Bull. 10:12-22.
DERANIYAGALA S.U., 1992. The Prehistory of Sri Lanka, pts. I, II. Colombo:
Archaeological Survey Department.
IP - Administration report of the Director-General of Archaeology for
1992. Colombo: Archaeological Survey Department.
GHOSH A.K. (ed.), 1974. Perpectives in palaeoanthropology: Professor
D. Sen festchrift.
Calcutta: Mukhopadhyay.
KARUNARATNE P., 1994. A brief report on the excavation at Ibbankatuva,
a proto- and Early Historic settlement site. In: Bandaranayake and Mogren
(1994):105-12.
KARUNARATNE P. and ADIKARI G., 1994. Excavations at Aligala prehistoric
site. In: Bandaranayake and Mogren (1994):55-64.
KENNEDY K.A.R.,1974. The palaeo-demography of Ceylon: a study of the
biological continuum of a population from prehistoric to modern times.
In: Ghosh ed. (1974): 95-113.
KENNEDY K.A.R., DERANIYAGALA S.U., ROERTJEN W.J., CHIMENT J. and DISOTELL
T.,
1987. Upper Pleistocene fossil hominids from Sri Lanka. American Journal
of Physical Anthropology 72: 441-61.
KENOYER J.M. (ed.), 1994. From Sumer to Meluhha: contributions to the
archaeology of South and West Asia in memory of George F. Dales, Jr. Wisconsin
Archaeological Reports 3.
LESHNIK L.S., 1974. South Indian Megaliths. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner.
MOGREN M., 1994. Objectives, methods, constraints and perspectives.
In: Bandaranayake and Mogren (1994):23-42.
MISHRA S., 1995. Chronology of the Indian Stone Age: the impact of
recent absolute and relative dating attempts. Man and Environment 20 (2):
11-6.
MISRA V.N., 1989. Stone Age India: an ecological perspective. Man and
Environment 14(1):17- 64.
MAHROOF M.M.M., 1992. Pearls in Sri Lankan history. South Asian Studies
8: 109-14.
POSSEHL G., 1990. Scientific dates for South Asian archaeology. Univ.
Pennsylvania: University Museum, Asian Section. 1.
RAJAN K., 1990. New light on the Megalithic culture of the Kongu region,
Tamil Nadu. Man and Environment 15(1): 93-l07.
SENEVIRATNE S., 1984. The archaeology of the Megalithic Black
and Red Ware Complex in Sri Lanka. Ancient Ceylon 5: 237-307.
SENEVIRATNE S., 1994. The ecology and archaeology of the Seruwila copper-magnetite
prospect, northeast Sri Lanka. In: Kenoyer ed. (1994): 261-80.
SHARMA R.S. and JHA V. (ed.), 1974. Indian society: probings in memory
of D.D. Kosambi. N. Delhi.
SOLHEIM W.G. and DERANIYAGALA S.U., 1972. Archaeological Survey to
investigate Southeast Asian prehistoric presence in Ceylon. Ancient Ceylon
occ. pap. 1.
VAN LOHUIZEN-DE LEEUW J.T. and UBAGHS J.M.M. (ed.), 1974. South Asian
Archaeology 1973. Brill.
Pre- and protohistoric settlement in Sri Lanka
XIII U. I. S. P. P. Congress Proceedings- VOLUME 5 / Section
16 /Pages 277-285
@ 1998, by A.B.A.C.O. s.r.l, Forli, Italy.