The Himalayan foothills of the Indian sub-continent have yielded evidence of humans having lived there around two million years ago where the earliest known dates for hominids in peninsular India are 600,000 years before the present.

Adams Bridge

During this period, more often than not, Sri Lanka was linked to south India by a land bridge. It is, therefore, possible that humans were present in Sri Lanka from at least as early as one million years ago.

The deposits of ancient coastal sands and gravels referred to as the “Iranamadu Formation” in the north and southeast of the island provided evidence of human habitation which could be as old as 250,000 BP. or even 700,000-500,000 BP.

The Iranamadu Formation near Bundala in the south of the country provides evidence that there were prehistoric settlements in Sri Lanka by about 125,000BP. The people in this period has made tools of quartz to remove flesh from animals hundred by them. It was evidenced by the small-flake stone tool found in this area.

The gem-bearing alluvial gravels of Rathnapura district have yielded remains of hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and lion belonged to the Upper Pleistocene era, which has been dated 80,000 BP.

Belilena & Pahiyangala

Pahiyangala Cave (Fa- Hien- Lena rock cave) has yielded the evidence (at 37,000BP) of anatomically modern man in Sri Lanka, which was the earliest found in South Asia too. Several other human remains have been found in Batadomba-Lena near Kuruwitha, Beli-Lena at Kitulgala, and Alu-Lena near Kegalle (all these are rock caves).

Balangoda Man

The "Balangoda Man", referred to the anatomically modern prehistoric humans in Sri Lanka has thick skull bones, prominent brow-ridges, depressed wide noses, heavy jaws, and short necks. The teeth are conspicuously large. The bones are robust. He has an estimated height of 174cm. (5’ 8”) for males and 166cm. (5’ 5’’) for females which is considerable height compared with present-day Sri Lankans. These traits have survived in varying degrees among the Veddas who still live in the Central, Uva, and North-Eastern parts of the island.

Balangoda Man continues to be a useful working concept, referring to the island’s late quaternary human. He appears to have settled in practically every nook and corner of the country ranging from the damp and cold high plains as Maha-Eliya (Horton Plains) to the arid lowlands of Mannar and Wilpattu, to the steamy equatorial rain forests of Sabaragamuwa. The camps were invariably small, rarely exceeding 50 square meters in area, thus suggesting occupation by not more than a couple of nuclear families at most. Their foraging hunter-gather lifestyle could not have been too different from that described for the Veddas. They would have been moving from place to place on an annual cycle foraging for food. 

The palynological (pollen) evidence of incipient management of barley and oats and herding by around 15,000 BP have been found in Horton Plains. A cereal and crude red pottery belong to 5,300 BC and black and red pottery belong to 3,100 BC have yielded at Doravak-Lena shelter in Kegalle.

The proto-historic (the term applies only when over half the nutrient intake is derived from food production) of Early Iron Age manifestation of the country was found at Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in Sigiriya (1,000-800BC.).

Anuradhapura slowly developed as a town since 800 BC. In that period human settlement in Anuradhapura exceeded 10 hectares and by about 700-600BC it was exceeded 50 hectares. In this period Sri Lankans possessed a superior cultural heritage and they were manufacturers of clay utensils utilizing their technological knowledge and that they were competent in the use of Iron while being engaged in agricultural activities with the application of irrigation techniques accordingly developed a unique hydraulic civilization.

Ibbankatuwa & Pomparippu

The evidence of burial grounds and clay utensils used by them for funeral purposes are been found on the excavation done in Pomparippu, Ibbankatuwa and Yatigalpotta areas.

You also like to know:

Vedda, Sri Lankan Aboriginal https://www.fantasiatours.com/thinkstodocategories/view-activities/41

Historic places in Sri Lanka https://www.fantasiatours.com/thinkstodocategories/view-activities/13

Itineraries to explore prehistoric places in Sri Lanka:

https://www.fantasiatours.com/viewDetailedItinerary/26

https://www.fantasiatours.com/viewDetailedItinerary/35