Man from Balangoda

There is evidence of the presence of human Paleolithic ancestors ( Homo erectus ) in Sri Lanka about 300,000 years ago, and possibly even 500,000 years ago. There is convincing evidence of prehistoric settlements in Sri Lanka about 125,000 years ago ^[1] .

The discovered remains of anthropologically modern man belong to the culture of the second period of the Stone Age , which, most likely, passed into the Iron Age in Sri Lanka around about 1000 BC. e. This Mesolithic culture is known as the Balangoda culture .

In 1955, the remains of the skeletons of a prehistoric man in the Batadombalena cave cave were found by a paleontologist and zoologist Deraniagala. In 1981, more complete skeletons were discovered. The growth of an adult balanangodian person is estimated at 174 cm for men and 166 cm for women. The bones are strong, the bones of the skull are thick, prominent eyebrows, a small nose, heavy jaws and a short neck.

The instrumentation of people from Balangoda consists of geometric microliths , including small ones up to 4 cm long, flakes of quartz and (occasionally) siliceous slate , processed into a moon-shaped, triangular or trapezoidal shape. Siran Upendra Deraniagala , the former general director for archeology of Sri Lanka , claims that such geometric microliths in Europe were characteristic of the Mesolithic period and first appeared only 12,000 years ago, so it was unexpected to discover much older microliths in Sri Lanka - in particular, which were made 31,000 years ago ( Batadombalena ), 28,000 years ago (two coastal sites in the Bundal) ^[2] and about 30,000 years ago ( Belilena ).

The man from Balangoda is apparently responsible for the creation of the Horton plains in the central mountainous part of the island, burning trees to catch game. However, the discovery of traces of oats and barley on these plains dating back to approximately 15,000 BC. e. shows that they also may have been engaged in agriculture . ^[3] .

The skeletal remains of dogs from the Nilgala Cave, as well as from Bellanbandi-Palassa , dating back to the Mesolithic era, about 4500 BC. e., suggest that Balangodian people probably kept domestic dogs in order to drive the game . It is noted that the Sinhalese Hound and cadar dog , have a common prehistoric ancestor. Also, people of this culture may have been able to domesticate birds living in the jungle, pigs, water buffaloes and a wild bull (ancestor of Sri Lankan cattle, extinct in the 1940s). ^[four]

• Belilena - Kitulgala
• Vavula Payne - Ratnapura
• Batadombalena - Kuruvita
• Fa Hien Cave - Kalutara
• Bellanbandi Palace - Pansadar Chen, Balangoda
• Horton Plains
• Dorawaka Lena - Kegalle

• Prehistoric Sri Lanka

• Kenneth AR Kennedy, Fa Hien Cave, in Encyclopedia of Anthropology ed. H. James Birx (2006, SAGE Publications; ISBN 0-7619-3029-9 )
• Kenneth AR Kennedy and Siran U. Deraniyagala, Fossil remains of 28,000-year old hominids from Sri Lanka, Current Anthropology, Vol. 30, No. 3. (Jun., 1989), pp. 394-399.
• Kenneth AR Kennedy, T. Disotell, WJ Roertgen, J. Chiment and J. Sherry, Biological anthropology of upper Pleistocene hominids from Sri Lanka: Batadomba Lena and Beli Lena caves , Ancient Ceylon 6: 165-265.
• Kenneth AR Kennedy, Siran U. Deraniyagala, WJ Roertgen, J. Chiment and T. Disotell, Upper Pleistocene fossil hominids from Sri Lanka , American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 72: 441-461, 1987.
• Annual Review of Anthropology: 1980 By Siege, Bernard J. Siegel - Page 403 & 416
• [1] Propaedia: outline of knowledge and guide to the Britannica .-- [2] - [11] Micropaedia: ready reference and index .-- [12] - [30] Macropaedia: knowledge in depth.

• Archeology
• Cave exploration tours in Sri Lanka
• PRE- AND PROTOHISTORIC SETTLEMENT IN SRI LANKA
• Here they lived and died
• pre and protohistoric settlement in Sri Lanka