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    Srilankan History Part 2

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    WISH BOOK SHOP & GROCERY
    - Evidence suggests that Balangoda Man arrived in Sri Lanka around 125,000 years ago and were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers that lived in caves. Artifacts from these earliest inhabitants have been found in caves like Batadombalena and Fa Hien Cave. - During the protohistoric period between 1000-500 BCE, Sri Lanka shared the same megalithic burials, pottery, iron technology, farming techniques and graffiti with southern India, as the two cultures were united. - Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE and expanded significantly by 700 BCE.

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    Srilankan History Part 2

    Uploaded by

    WISH BOOK SHOP & GROCERY
    25 views2 pages
    - Evidence suggests that Balangoda Man arrived in Sri Lanka around 125,000 years ago and were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers that lived in caves. Artifacts from these earliest inhabitants have been found in caves like Batadombalena and Fa Hien Cave. - During the protohistoric period between 1000-500 BCE, Sri Lanka shared the same megalithic burials, pottery, iron technology, farming techniques and graffiti with southern India, as the two cultures were united. - Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE and expanded significantly by 700 BCE.

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    SRILANKAN HISTORY PART 2

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    - Evidence suggests that Balangoda Man arrived in Sri Lanka around 125,000 years ago and were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers that lived in caves. Artifacts from these earliest inhabitants have been found in caves like Batadombalena and Fa Hien Cave. - During the protohistoric period between 1000-500 BCE, Sri Lanka shared the same megalithic burials, pottery, iron technology, farming techniques and graffiti with southern India, as the two cultures were united. - Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE and expanded significantly by 700 BCE.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as txt, pdf, or txt
    25 views2 pages

    Srilankan History Part 2

    Uploaded by

    WISH BOOK SHOP & GROCERY
    - Evidence suggests that Balangoda Man arrived in Sri Lanka around 125,000 years ago and were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers that lived in caves. Artifacts from these earliest inhabitants have been found in caves like Batadombalena and Fa Hien Cave. - During the protohistoric period between 1000-500 BCE, Sri Lanka shared the same megalithic burials, pottery, iron technology, farming techniques and graffiti with southern India, as the two cultures were united. - Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE and expanded significantly by 700 BCE.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Prehistory

    Main article: Prehistory of Sri Lanka


    Evidence of human colonization in Sri Lanka appears at the site of Balangoda.
    Balangoda Man arrived on the island about 125,000 years ago and has been identified
    as Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived in caves. Several of these caves,
    including the well-known Batadombalena and the Fa Hien Cave, have yielded many
    artifacts from these people, who are currently the first known inhabitants of the
    island.

    Balangoda Man probably created Horton Plains, in the central hills, by burning the
    trees in order to catch game. However, the discovery of oats and barley on the
    plains at about 15,000 BCE suggests that agriculture had already developed at this
    early date.[6]

    Several minute granite tools (about 4 centimetres in length), earthenware, remnants


    of charred timber, and clay burial pots date to the Mesolithic. Human remains
    dating to 6000 BCE have been discovered during recent excavations around a cave at
    Warana Raja Maha Vihara and in the Kalatuwawa area.

    Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka and has been found in Ancient Egypt as early as
    1500 BCE, suggesting early trade between Egypt and the island's inhabitants. It is
    possible that Biblical Tarshish was located on the island. James Emerson Tennent
    identified Tarshish with Galle.[7]

    The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself in South India
    by at least as early as 1200 BCE, if not earlier (Possehl 1990; Deraniyagala
    1992:734). The earliest manifestation of this in Sri Lanka is radiocarbon-dated to
    c. 1000–800 BCE at Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in Sigiriya (Deraniyagala
    1992:709-29; Karunaratne and Adikari 1994:58; Mogren 1994:39; with the Anuradhapura
    dating corroborated by Coningham 1999). It is very likely that further
    investigations will push back the Sri Lankan lower boundary to match that of South
    India.[8]

    During the protohistoric period (1000-500 BCE) Sri Lanka was culturally united with
    southern India.,[9] and shared the same megalithic burials, pottery, iron
    technology, farming techniques and megalithic graffiti.[10][11] This cultural
    complex spread from southern India along with Dravidian clans such as the Velir,
    prior to the migration of Prakrit speakers.[12][13][10]

    Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at
    Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE. The
    settlement was about 15 hectares in 900 BCE, but by 700 BCE it had expanded to 50
    hectares.[14] A similar site from the same period has also been discovered near
    Aligala in Sigiriya.[15]

    The hunter-gatherer people known as the Wanniyala-Aetto or Veddas, who still live
    in the central, Uva and north-eastern parts of the island, are probably direct
    descendants of the first inhabitants, Balangoda Man.[citation needed] They may have
    migrated to the island from the mainland around the time humans spread from Africa
    to the Indian subcontinent.

    Later Indo Aryan migrants developed a unique hydraulic civilization named Sinhala.
    Their Achievements include the construction of the largest reservoirs and dams of
    the ancient world as well as enormous pyramid-like stupa (dāgaba in Sinhala)
    architecture. This phase of Sri Lankan culture may have seen the introduction of
    early Buddhism.[16]

    Early history recorded in Buddhist scriptures refers to three visits by the Buddha
    to the island to see the Naga Kings, snakes that can take the form of a human at
    will.[17]

    The earliest surviving chronicles from the island, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa,
    say that Yakkhas, Nagas, Rakkhas and Devas inhabited the island prior to the
    migration of Indo Aryans.

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