Sri Lankan prehistory is notable because, to date, it lacks both a Palaeolithic and a Neolithic and the earliest human activity can only be securely pushed back to the first appearance of microlithic-using hunter-gatherers.
Despite this relatively late start, it is no exaggeration to state that Sri Lanka has one of the largest bodies of prehistoric archaeological research in South Asia for its size. This body of work was pioneered by the Sarasin brothers in the first decade of the twentieth century. In many respects they were ahead of their time in their treatment of stratigraphic sequences, artifact recording, faunal recording, site sampling, and critically their usage of ethnographic comparisons. By studying the extant Vadda hunter-gatherers, they were able to develop comparative interpretations for the archaeological record. This approach has continued to be used in recent years with Kennedy suggesting a phenotypic link between the so-called Balangoda Man (Homo sapiens balan-godensis) and modern Vadda communities.
The Sarasin’s work laid firm foundations, and over the next decade a number of archaeologists, such as Hartley (1911) and Wayland (1915 and 1919) studied Sri Lanka’s later prehistory, creating a vibrant field. In particular, since the 1930s, P. E. P. Deraniyagala, and later his son S. U. Deraniyagala, have developed a rigorous investigation of the island’s prehistory through the use of extensive surveys and excavations in the Ratnapura region of southwest Sri Lanka, an area with deep Pleistocene alluvial deposits and a number of open air and cave sites with faunal remains, human remains and lithic artifacts. The Ratnapura and later geometric microlithic industry are characterized by the use of quartzite stone tools, and the latter bear close comparison to the lithics of the Teri (sand-dune) sites of littoral southern India. Microlithic-tool-using sites are found throughout Sri Lanka, ranging from dunes to caves demonstrating the versatility and mobility of the island’s hunter-gatherers. Radiometric dates from these sites demonstrate that microlithic-tool-using communities spread across the island from 30 000 years BP onwards and in some places demonstrate a continuity that lasts until the first millennium BC.
World History
