DIGGING OUR OWN GRAVE: KAVAN RATNATUNGA'S ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG

Last year, I had visited excavation sites at Ranchamadama near Embilipitiya and Haldummulla and when the non-profit organization archaeology.lk offered an opportunity to participate in an actual dig they were doing from September 2 to 5, it was clearly an opportunity I did not want to miss. Commander N. G. A. Fernando (Sri Lanka Navy retired) agreed to join this short course with me to learn how to do a scientific archaeological excavation.

On the first day after instructions on the excavation and data recording process, we watched work being started on the primary burial site. All that was visible at first was the faint reddish outline of the top of the clay canoe on the gravel estate road. The first day's careful digging did not expose any artifacts.

That evening we walked over to see a settlement on top of a nearby hill. The site was being used as a modern cemetery. The ground had much evidence of ancient artifacts - we picked up a few pieces of broken pottery (potsherds). Prof. Somadeva identified a small piece of quartz as a Microlith, a tool made of clear quartz used in the protohistorical period. Microliths have been found as items placed in burials, some of which date back 30,000 years.

The next day we continued our instruction, as we watched the burial site being dug deeper and deeper. That evening we visited a second burial site nearby, the scientific usefulness of which had been sadly lost. This particular site had been previously dug by the villagers expecting to find treasure, after reading reports of last year's excavations. I requested Prof.Somadeva permission to excavate a part of that grave to find out what had been done to it.

So it was that on the third day we put our instructions to practical use by starting to dig our own grave. We soon found lots of potsherds and burnt charcoal which were probably the human remains in that burial. It had clearly been just dug and refilled when the villagers found nothing of commercial value. At the primary site they had exposed the top layer of crushed pots in which the remains had been cremated. It appears that the skeletal remains from a grave had been brought to these burials to be cremated in these pots.

To read the complete article, see: Digging our own grave (www.sundaytimes.lk/110918/Plus/plus_05.html)

For some more images, see: lakdiva.org/suntimes/haldummulla/

Wayne Homren, Editor

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