Prehistoric time line of Sri Lanka
|
|
770,000 BC - Fire is used
in China by Peking man
|
|
700,000 BC - Humans in Lanka
|
|
|
Archeologists claim that Sri Lanka was definitely inhabited by the
humans by 700,000 BC.
|
|
200,000 BC - Beginning of Middle Paleolithic Period
|
|
|
"Paleolithic" means "Old Stone Age." This was
the earliest period of the Stone Age. The Lower Paleolithic predates
Homo sapiens, beginning with Homo habilis and the earliest use of stone
tools some 2.5 million years ago. Homo sapiens originated some 200,000
years ago, ushering in the Middle Paleolithic.
Sometime during the Middle Paleolithic, humans also developed language,
music, early art, as well as systematic burial of the dead.
|
|
123,000BC- Oldest human found in Lanka (
see here
)
|
|
|
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
|
|
120,000 BP - Modern Homo sapiens appears in Africa.
|
|
|
Pathirajawela in the Deep South. The oldest Lankan human's remains
and his stone tools were recovered in Pathirajawela in Deep South, near
Ambalantota, by a student from Bundala Central School. This Lankan had
lived 20,000 years before the Niandathal inhabited the earth. It has
been estimated, at an international average, that the population density
for Lanka, at the time was 0.8-1.5 per Sq Km in dry zone and 0.1 in
wet zone. They had lived in groups of 1-2 families, not in large groups
due to scarcity of food. With this proof of pre-historic settlement
in Lanka, Patirajawela also exposed a flake and stone tool industry
belonging to 125,000 to 75,000 BC. This meant that the Lankans had already
started their long journey towards civilization.
|
|
80,000 BC- Lions, Rhinoceroses and Hippos from an excavation in Ratnapura
District
|
|
|
Archaeologists have found the remains of animals. That included a hippopotamus
with six incisor teeth, a rhinoceros, and a lion. Along with these animal
remains, stone artifacts comprising, typically, large choppers and flakes
of quartz and chert, have been found. However, apart from a human calotte
from a gem pit near Ellawala, no human remains have been discovered yet
from the Ratnapura.
|
|
80,000 BC - 2nd oldest human found in Lanka, Bundala in the Deep South
|
|
|
These people made tools of quartz (and a few on chert). Apart from such
tools, no other remains had survived the ravages of time and tropical
weathering.
|
|
30,500 BC -
Fa-Hien cave
, 3rd oldest Lankan human proves world's oldest
proof of consumption of rice, Kurahan, salt
|
|
|
Female body-remains found in Yatagampitiya near BulathSinhala, proved
the consumption of rice, kurahan, and salt. The Archaeologists named
her Kalu-Menika. It was proof that 20,000 years before the world, Lankans
have gone agricultural. It was also the first anatomically modern human
found in whole of South Asia.
Pahiyanagala
is also the largest natural cave in South Asia. Over
150 feet in height, 282 feet long,
Pahiyangala
can accommodate over
3000 humans. In 600 AD, the visiting Chinese monk Fa-Hien lived here
for sometime.
|
|
28,500 BC -
Batadomba Lena
near Kuruvita, the Balangoda man, stronger & taller
|
|
|
These remains, and the following
Belilena
and
BellanBendi Palassa
, have
been subjected to detailed analysis. These anatomically modern prehistoric
humans in Sri Lanka are referred to as Balangoda Man. Some males were
174 cm tall, and some females were 166 cm tall. This is considerably
taller than the present-day Sri Lankans. The bones also are robust. They
had thick skull-bones and prominent brow-ridges, depressed noses, heavy
jaws and short necks. The teeth were conspicuously large. These traits
have survived among the Veddas and certain unmixed Sinhalese. Balangoda
Man is regarded as the original Lankan.
S. U. Deraniyagala
, Former Director-General of , Sri Lanka,
says that 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
being around 12,000 BP. Hence it came as a surprise when such tools were found
as early as 31,000 BP at
Batadombalena
and even at other sites, like the two coastal sites in and at
Belilena
|
|
28,500 BC - Lankans live in Mannar, Horton plains to Bundala, in two
family units
|
|
|
By this time Lankans were settled in every corner of Sri Lanka, 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 rainforests of
Sabaragamuwa. Their camps were small, rarely exceeding 50 sq.m in area,
thus suggesting occupation by not more than a couple of families at most.
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. They had been
moving from place to place, on an annual cycle of looking for food.
|
|
28,500 BC: Lankans have started business between the coast and the
hills
|
|
|
Beads of shells have also been discovered deep inside the country. Discovery
of marine shells in inland sites such as
Batadomba-lena
, points to an
extensive network of contacts between the coast and the inland.
|
|
28,500 BC- Lankans have burial customs
|
|
|
Balangoda Man had a custom to bury his dead underneath his camp floor.
He selected certain bones for this purpose. At Ravana Ella cave and
Fa
Hien Lena
, red ochre had been ceremonially smeared on the bones.
|
|
28,500 BC- Geometric microliths (believed to be first used by the Europeans
in 12,500BC) are found in
Batadomba Lena
in the tool kit of Balangoda
Man, 16,000 years earlier than Europe first used it.
|
|
|
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. 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
BC. Hence it came as a surprise when such tools were found as early as
28,500 BC at
Batadomba-lena
, 28,000 BC at two coastal sites in Bundala
and over 27,000 BC at
Beli-lena
. Sri Lanka has yielded evidence of this
sophisticated technological phase some 16,000 years earlier than in Europe.
However, the geometric microliths were discovered in various parts of
Africa, such as Zaire and southern Africa, from periods in excess of
27,000 BC. Europe was late in manifesting this techno-tradition due to
as yet undefined reasons.
|
|
27,000 BC- Beli Lena at Kitulgala
|
|
|
There is evidence from
Beli-lena
that salt had been brought in from the
coast at a date in excess of 27,000 BC.
|
|
15,000 BC -
Horton plains
|
|
|
Agro subsistence strategy 7000 years before the world did. There is pollen
evidence from the Horton Plains for herding and the farming of barley
and oats by 15,000 BC and also around 8,000 BC. The new evidence from
the
Horton Plains
is of great importance. Ghar-i-Mar and Aq Kupruk in
Afghanistan and Mehrgarh in Pakistan were known to have had a Neolithic
subsistence strategy by 7,000-6,000 BC. There is tentative evidence of
herding in northern Rajasthan by 7,000 BC, of rice and pottery at Koldihwa,
U.P. in India by 5,000 BC, and perhaps cereal management/farming in the
Nilgiri Hills of South India by 8,000 BC. Therefore Lankans had proof
of Agro subsistence strategy 7000 years before the world did.
|
|
15,000 BC - SuriyaKanda near Ambilipitiya, use of necklaces & needles
|
|
|
The female body parts recovered by archaeologists proved the use of needles
(made of rabbit bones), and necklace made of a see-thru material like
glass but as hardy as plastic. The Archaeologists have named her Nimali.
|
|
13,000 BC - The discovery of the remains of two pre-historic humans
and other artifacts in a cave in
Alawala
, Gampaha
|
|
|
This recent discovery has also unearthed tools to butcher animals,
A shark tooth ornament and remains of breadfruit seeds called Kekuna.
|
|
10,500 BC -
Alu-lena near Attanagoda
, Kegalle More human remains were
discovered here.
|
|
|
|
|
8,000 BC / 7,000 BC - In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq,
cultivation of barley and wheat begins.
|
|
6,500 BC -
Bellan-Bendi Pelessa near Embiliyapitiya
- Secret of the Strong Bones
|
|
|
Bellan-Bandi Palassa near Embiliyapitiya
is
an open-air site of human remains. The well-preserved evidence from
these caves showed that Lankans were having a very wide range of food-plants
and animals. Prominent among them were canarium nuts, wild breadfruit
and wild bananas. It also showed that Lankans ate almost any type animal,
from elephants to snakes, rats, snails and small fish. This well-balanced
diet must be the secret behind the robusticity of the human skeletal
remains. The degeneration of the bone, caused by a specialized starchy
diet and a sedentary life style, was yet to come.
|
|
6,300 BC -
Dorawaka-Kanda cave
near Kegalle
|
|
|
Geometric Microlithic industry & pottery The transition from the
Mesolithic Balangoda Culture to the protohistoric early Iron Age has
not been adequately documented in Sri Lanka. The relevant deposits have
been destroyed due to the extraction of fertilizer from prehistoric cave
habitations. Recent excavations in the cave of
Dorawaka-kanda
near Kegalle
could resolve this problem. 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. By this time,
Dorawaka-lena
shelter had
proved a geometric microlithic industry. It also proved a cereal and
a crude red pottery by 5,300 BC, and Black and Red Ware by 3,100 BC.
|
|
6,000 BC - Lankan city on Mahamevuna Uyana, Proof of Horses
|
|
|
35 feet under the present Mahamevuna Uyana in
Anuradapura
, the remains
of a huge city dated to 9000-6000BC was uncovered by Archeologists in
2001 AD. It was proof that Lankans had used Horses before the North Indians
such as prince Vijaya came in 483BC.
|
|
6,000 BC -
PalleMalala site
, first proof of a pre-historic shell midden
in the country, fireplace, grinding stone, burial room, Rough clothing
|
|
|
A group of pre-historic Lankans set up camp at a dried-up lagoon in
Hambantota. There they lived, hunted and fished for food and buried
the dead under the very same ground. They hunted sambhur, deer and
wild boar with crude stone and sharpened bone tools. The meat was roasted
over an open hearth. Fish and reptile meat was a common diet. The
bones were ground on a large flat stone to extract the marrow. The skins
were dried to make rough clothing. Animal remains found in the living
floor belonged to as many as 50 species including deer, hare, mouse,
wild boar and kulumeema (Bos indica). A primitive grinding stone and
vestiges of a fireplace, probably for roasting mollusc's, have been
found. A meter below the living floor was the burial floor. Seven adult
skeletons have been found buried. A shell midden is a mound of shells
created when pre-historic humans threw the shells of animals such as
oysters and mussels after they had consumed them in a particular spot.
There would have been at least 15 people originally dwelling at this
single site, considering the size of the shell midden.
|
|
6,000 BC -
PalleMalala
site indicates the origins of MahaSona beliefs
|
|
|
The discovery in the burial floor, of the skull of a wild boar with its
tusks intact, next to a human skull suggested some kind of a burial ritual.
In Sinhalese folk traditions, Mahasona has been depicted as having the
head of a boar. Veddas still have this practice as the kirikoraha ceremony,
using the head of a boar, and offering tribute to Kande Yaka, the Vedda's
god of hunting.
|
|
6,000 BC - Similarity of
PalleMalala
man with the rest of the world
|
|
|
Lankan is in the forefront of the human development The lifestyles of
the stone age Lankan could not have been any different from others who
lived elsewhere in the world. There are striking similarities in the
stone tools found anywhere in the world belonging to the same age. Burial
practices too appear to have similarities. The human bodies found in
Pallemalala
have been buried in a curious folded position where the knees
and elbows had been folded towards the body in burial. Similar burials
in 'folded' position have been unearthed from sites elsewhere in the
world as well. This proved that the Lankan was in the very front of the
race for the human progress. There has been frequent migration between
the landmass that was Sri Lanka at the time and the Indian continent,
across the Palk Strait. That probably helped the Lankan to check what
the other humans were doing.
|
|
4,000 BC - A pre-historic grave
|
|
|
Archeologists had found a
pre-historic grave site near IbbanKatuwa
Weva in Dambulla
|
|
3,500 BC - The boat that could carry over 150 passengers, is found
in Lanka
|
|
|
On Attanagalla Oya, a ferry capable of carrying over 150 people, was
discovered. This proved the existence of a well-established water-based
transport system.
|
|
3,000 BC - Sigiriya is considered the AlakaMandava of the Ravana times
|
|
|
Historians and Archeologists claim that Sigirya must be the Alaka Mandava
of Ravana, based on oldest archaeological evidence found on site.
|
|
3,000 BC - Stonehenge construction begins. In its first version, it
consisted of a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts
|
|
1,000 BC - End of stone age and the beginning of Iron Age
|
|
900 BC - Remains of extensive human settlements at Anuradhapura
|
|
|
The three major sites at Anuradhapura in north-central Sri Lanka have
been intensively excavated by the Archaeological Department, checked
by the University of Cambridge, and over 75 radiocarbon dates are
available for this settlement. There is an excellent chronology starting
from 900 B.C. In this layer (early Iron Age), we found large quantities
of artifacts, which are characterised by the use of iron, horses, cattle,
high-grade pottery, and possibly cultivation of rice.
The settlement was fairly large, at least 10 hectares in size. It
was not a small village. We have no mechanics of knowing why such
a settlement should have started in the first place. For it is the
only major settlement of this period that has been found in Sri Lanka.
Further investigation will undoubtedly reveal other large settlements
of this period. This culture developed progressively and expanded
into city life by 700 B.C.
|
-