This
landmass, named Gondwanaland, then broke up.
India with Ceylon
and Madagascar attached moved upward into Asia.
My theory
proposes a different context to the above mentioned
statements.
Today, India and Ceylon stand on the same ocean
shelf. The continental shelf has an average width of about 12 miles
around the island, where the mean depth of water is only about 200
feet, beyond which there is an abrupt drop to 3000 feet roughly two
miles from the shore. Within 10 miles it drops further to 6000 feet
and eventually plunging deep to 18,000 feet.
About 12 million
years ago, Ceylon started to separate from the Indian subcontinent
due to fluctuations in the sea level. Siran Deraniyagala says that
the sea level would have dropped on at least 17 occasions within the
last 700,000 years.
The
last separation from India would have occurred about 10,000 years
ago.
During
the Stone Age, Ceylon was linked to India by a wide land bridge
across Palk Strait.
Today,
the sea is barely 100 feet deep in the Palk Strait due to limestone
deposition.
Prehistoric
data are rudimentary in our context and a global picture cannot be
made from the available archaeological data.
There
are many reasons but for completeness, sake I would briefly mention
only a few.
Number
one is we never had the scientific inclination to record events
accurately. The period before 2500 years is only a folklore and
romantic tales of many inaccuracies.
The
prehistoric man probably lived in caves.
They
had to share these caves with the big cats, if there were any.
It
was probably the battle between the man and the beast.
Probably
the man won most of the battles due to their shear numbers and the
winning outcome provided meat for subsistence.
When
the last of the colonizers arrived from India, there would have been
pitch
battles which were deliberately deleted from our history books.
Probably
our real ancestors retreated and few probably survived as Vaddhas in
the jungles and caves.
The
colonizers probably brought in diseases with them including small
pox, which would have wiped out many natives (almost to extinction).
I
have some reservation about the current Veddhas.
There is
hardly any difference from the main race except their rudimentary
language. I believe they were drifters from the main stream who
preferred hunting as opposed to rigidly imposed Buddhist way of life.
Then
of course some of the Buddhist monks with the inclination for
meditation practice occupied most of the accessible caves as their
birth right.
They
of course destroyed any evidence of or any remnants of prehistoric
life for good.
Another
conjecture here is that most of the caves of prehistoric importance
have taken the name of Alu Lena meaning caves with ash.
What
it means may be that the prehistoric evidence were torched to ashes
before converting them to temples by the occupants (mostly Buddhist
monks).
I
am puzzled why the new colonizers, the rulers, monks and civilians
destroyed these artifacts.
One
possibility was that they were scared of the demons in these caves
and pulverized everything that was prehistoric.
I
do not want to believe that scenario since Buddhist monks have Pirith
or vocal recitals to protect them.
I
am inclined to believe the destruction of any artifacts left, going
back to 10,000 years was a deliberate act to conceal or suppress the
unwritten history probably, the most intense warfare in Ceylonese
history, the ancient man had with the new visitors from India.
They
would have left bony evidence of violence and multiple fractures and
pulverizing them to ashes was the only option left for the victors.
When
the colonizers of the West came in 2000 years later they did not have
any on record of the ancient man to write about.
The
archaeological collections I have extracted from various sources are
stated below.
One
must take them with a pinch of salt.
The interpretations,
if not biased may be largely exaggerated.
They
are not my interpretations.
My
Interpretations
However, I would like to go back to my
theory of the Origin of Ceylon with some slant to the prehistoric
findings.
There were evidence of sea shells found in the
interior of the country such as Kitulgala (2000 feet above sea level)
and Balangoda (2000 to 3000 feet above sea level) plain.
If I
repeat the three uplifts of the landmass of Ceylon, it would appear
that present Kitulgala and Balangoda would have been under sea water
many million years ago.
The first peneplain formed after the
original uplift due to the meteorite hit remained at 500 to 1000
feet.
This is probably the current lower plains of the coastal
region from sea to the foothills.
The second uplift contributed
another 1000 to 2000 feet making the second peneplain at a level of
1500 to 2500 feet. Kandyan Plateau at a higher level and Balangoda
Plateau at a lower level.
The third or fourth uplift made the
hills in the middle of the country with rugged peneplain that rose up
to 8000 feet forming mountain ranges.
What it mean is that the
final and the massive uplift due to the last meteorite contributed
4000 to 5000 feet of height to the landmass.
Now Kitulgala is
around 2000 feet above sea level which is close to Ginigathhena Gap
through which the road enters the hill country. This region could
have been under water before second uplift of the landmass. The
second uplift would have brought the seabed with it sea shells up and
some of which got trapped between the two peneplains.
Kitulgala
and Balangoda are located in the border zone where the gaps that
leads to the upcountry are formed due to erosion.
Of course
Ginigathhena was where the trade passed through from the coast to the
upcountry. Any trader would have brought sea shells there. That is
the explanation given by the archaeologists (see below).
My
counter argument is by the time the sea shells were brought in from
the sea (unless very well preserved) they would be rotten (once in
Kitulgala).
Far
better one eats them where they originated, in the coastal zone,
instead of trading with the hill country folks.
Of
course sea salt was one ingredient that came up through the pass even
in the prehistoric time (for preserving food).
The
word Bellan in Sinhala means shells.
The word Alu means
ashes.
Archaeological excavations indicate that there were
prehistoric settlements in Ceylon about 300,000 or even 500,000 years
ago. There is firm evidence at present that there were prehistoric
settlements in Ceylon about 127,000 years ago. The evidence comes
from excavations in coast of Bundala, at Patirajawela, and
Wellegangoda. Settlements of the prehistoric period, known as the
Stone Age, dating between 125,000-1000 BCE, have been found at
Pidurangala, Patana, Dambulla and Mapagala. Settlements of the
proto-historic period known as the early Iron Age, dating from
1000-500 BCE have emerged at Ibbankatuwa and Pansalgodella. Other
possible sites for early iron age settlements are Kadurugoda,
Mantota, and Kelaniya.
People
first settled in the coastal zones, and then moved up to fertile
tracts and to locations, in the central hills where there were
mineral resources.
Evidence of settlements could be found in
Kitulgala, Karadupone and Ravana Ella, all entry points to the
hills.
The central hills were mined for gems in the prehistoric
period. There are remnants of camps, and caves in the wet zone. The
camps were small, suggesting occupation by not more than a couple of
nuclear families at most. Almost all were close to a stream or spring
or were at the confluence of the tributaries with the main river. The
network of footpaths that link the existing Purana villages today,
pass through most of the sites identified. So it is possible that
many of these footpaths were in existence during early times. The
earliest villages may have been about 3 hectares each.
The
occurrence of marine shells at inland sites such as Batadomba Lena
(Diva Guhava) points to an extensive network of contacts (Batandomba
lena is a pre historic cave system in Sudagala, 5 km away from the
town of Kuruwita) between the coast and the hinterland. There is
evidence from Belilena that salt had been brought in from the coast
at a date more than 32,000 years ago.
The earliest form of
cultivation was chena and kurakkan was the earliest food. Kurakkan
came here in 10,000 BCE. It is a very hardy grain and was used as a
substitute for rice.
There were many varieties of kurakkans.
Rice cultivation can be seen from about 250 BCE. Wetland rice
cultivation in its early form was an indigenous
development.
Excavations at Fa Hien Lena near Bulathsinhala,
Batadomba lena, near Kuruwita, Belilena, at Kitulgala (Belilena is a
famous large cave in Sri Lanka. It is located 8 km from the town of
Kitulgala. It holds evidence of a lost generation of Sri Lankans some
12,000 years old.), Alu lena at Attanagoda near Kegalle, Bellan Bandi
Palassa near Embilipitiya and Bandarawela, provided information on
the early settlers and their habitat.
Fragmentary remains of an
extinct race of Neanderthal Man were found. Fa Hien Lena yielded the
earliest evidence of anatomically modern man in South Asia.
He
was labeled Balangoda Man.
Balangoda Man was at an estimated
height of 174 cm for males and 166 for females. The bones were
robust, with thick skull bones. The teeth were conspicuously large.
Balangoda Man appears to have settled practically every nook and
comer of Ceylon ranging from the damp and cold high plains such as
Maha Eliya (Horton Plains) to the and lowlands of Mannar and Wilpattu
and the equatorial rain forests of Sabaragamuwa.
The camps were
invariably small thus suggesting occupation by not more than a couple
of nuclear families at most. They have eaten a very wide range of
food plants and animals. They ate wild breadfruit and wild
bananas.
They have gobbled up every conceivable animal, from
elephants to snakes, rats, snails and small fish. Tortoises and
terrapins probably had been consumed. The diet has been well balanced
judging by the robust skeletal remains.
Balangoda man, like
stone age man elsewhere, had succeeded in domesticating the dog,
about 7500 years ago.
Remains of early iron age man had been
found in just one site, Pomparippu. The biological anthropology of
this Early Iron Age man is different to that of Balangoda
Man.
Fossils of animals and plants from the Jurassic period (I
have my doubt about dating this far into 65 million years) have been
found at Tabbowa wewa. Fossil bones of rhinoceros were found in
Ratnapura. Tigers inhabited Ceylon about 135,000 years ago. Their
bones and teeth were found at Batadomba Lena recently. Fossils of
hippopotamus, the ridge browed elephant, the Asian elephant, the
buffalo, the gaur, (The gaur, Bos gaurus, also called Indian bison,
is the largest extant bovine, native to South Asia and Southeast
Asia) and the rhinoceros have also emerged.
The island appears
to have been colonized by the Balangoda Man (named after the area
where his remains were discovered) prior to 34,000. They have been
identified as a group of Mesolithic hunter gatherers who lived in
caves.
Fa Hien Cave has yielded the earliest evidence (at
34,000 years) of anatomically modern humans in South Asia.
Several
of these caves including the well known Batadombalena and the Fa Hien
Cave have yielded many artifacts that points to them being the first
modern inhabitants of the island. There is evidence from Beli-lena
that salt had been brought in from the coast earlier than 27,000
years.
Several minute granite tools of about 4 centimeters in
length, earthenware and remnants of charred timber, and clay burial
pots that date back to the Stone Age Mesolithic people who lived
8,000 years ago have been discovered during recent excavations around
a cave at Varana Raja Maha vihara and also in Kalatuwawa area.
The
skeletal remains of dogs from Nilgala cave and from Bellanbandi
Palassa, dating from the Mesolithic era, about 4500 BCE, suggest that
Balangoda People may have kept domestic dogs for driving game.
The
Ceylon hound is similar in appearance to the Kadar Dog, the New
Guinea Dog and the Dingo. It has been suggested that these could all
derive from a common domestic stock. It is also possible that they
may have domesticated jungle fowl, pig, water buffalo and some form
of Bos (possibly the ancestor of the Ceylonese cattle which became
extinct in the 1940s).
The Balangoda Man appears to have been
responsible for creating Horton Plains, in the central hills, by
burning the trees in order to catch game. However, evidence from the
plains suggests the incipient management of Oats and Barley by about
15,000 BCE.
The transition in Ceylon from the Mesolithic to the
Iron Age has not been adequately documented.
A
human skeleton found at Godavaya in the Hambantota district,
provisionally dated back to 3000 - 5000 BCE was accompanied by tools
of animal bone and stone.
Iron Age
A
large settlement appears to have been founded before 900 BCE at the
site of Anuradhapura where signs of an Iron Age culture have been
found. The size of the settlement was about 15 hectares at the
beginning but it expanded to 50 hectares, to a 'town' size within a
couple of centuries.
A similar site has been discovered at
Aligala in Sigiriya.
