from above:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Pomparippu dwellers (who probably lived around 500-1000 BC) followed the iron age burial custom of placing their dead in large clay vessels which were then buried.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
from another article:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->.....Pallemalala man's cultural artefacts indicate a middle stone-age (mesolithic) culture, that is to say a culture that possessed no polished ( neolithic) stone implements nor any related economic activity such as agriculture or animal domestication.
The discovery in the burial floor of the skull of a wild boar with its tusks intact in close proximity to a human skull suggests that the creature figured in some kind of ritual, contends Somadeva. He observed that it is a curious fact that the Mahasona demon should be depicted in Sinhalese folk tradition as having the head of a boar. It is also interesting to point out that the practice somewhat resembles the kirikoraha ceremony of the Veddas where the head of the kill - usually a deer - was offered to Kande Yaka, the Vedda god of hunting.
Besides providing good research material for a study of the island's stone age population, the Pallemalala site has the added benefit of being superimposed by an iron age occupation level of some settled incipient agricultural community, perhaps that of the early Aryan-speaking Sinhalese. Iron age site
Somadeva's team has found an iron age site directly above the shell midden which had been lying beneath the top soil for a good many centuries. The team stumbled upon the remains of four post halls during the course of their excavations which seem to have supported a modest wattle and daub structure. It evidently belonged to the iron age as attested by the discovery of an iron artefact at the site.
This would imply that the mesolithic had been abruptly terminated by the advent of an invading iron-using population without undergoing a neolithic phase.
Although seemingly neolithic artefacts produced by abrasion have been discovered in some ancient sites, Somadeva contends that the evidence for a clear-cut neolithic period in Sri Lanka is insufficient.............................. http://www.lankalibrary.com/<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Although the reporter confuses Derinagayala's evidence for agriculture for the mesolithic sri lankans, he does state that advent of Iron implements and jar inhumation is that of the Sinhala. He also states that evidence for the boar ritual in mesolithic times is reflected in sinhala tradition.. Now we understand why it so important for Indologist morons to place Indian iron phase as younger than that of the intrusive Hittites in the ME- despite the strong evidence for SSVC use of iron as well as historically unsurpassed indian mastery of iron-working. PRobably we are looking at an earlier mesolithic sinhala presence witha later specifically buddhist iron age overlay.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Pomparippu dwellers (who probably lived around 500-1000 BC) followed the iron age burial custom of placing their dead in large clay vessels which were then buried.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
from another article:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->.....Pallemalala man's cultural artefacts indicate a middle stone-age (mesolithic) culture, that is to say a culture that possessed no polished ( neolithic) stone implements nor any related economic activity such as agriculture or animal domestication.
The discovery in the burial floor of the skull of a wild boar with its tusks intact in close proximity to a human skull suggests that the creature figured in some kind of ritual, contends Somadeva. He observed that it is a curious fact that the Mahasona demon should be depicted in Sinhalese folk tradition as having the head of a boar. It is also interesting to point out that the practice somewhat resembles the kirikoraha ceremony of the Veddas where the head of the kill - usually a deer - was offered to Kande Yaka, the Vedda god of hunting.
Besides providing good research material for a study of the island's stone age population, the Pallemalala site has the added benefit of being superimposed by an iron age occupation level of some settled incipient agricultural community, perhaps that of the early Aryan-speaking Sinhalese. Iron age site
Somadeva's team has found an iron age site directly above the shell midden which had been lying beneath the top soil for a good many centuries. The team stumbled upon the remains of four post halls during the course of their excavations which seem to have supported a modest wattle and daub structure. It evidently belonged to the iron age as attested by the discovery of an iron artefact at the site.
This would imply that the mesolithic had been abruptly terminated by the advent of an invading iron-using population without undergoing a neolithic phase.
Although seemingly neolithic artefacts produced by abrasion have been discovered in some ancient sites, Somadeva contends that the evidence for a clear-cut neolithic period in Sri Lanka is insufficient.............................. http://www.lankalibrary.com/<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Although the reporter confuses Derinagayala's evidence for agriculture for the mesolithic sri lankans, he does state that advent of Iron implements and jar inhumation is that of the Sinhala. He also states that evidence for the boar ritual in mesolithic times is reflected in sinhala tradition.. Now we understand why it so important for Indologist morons to place Indian iron phase as younger than that of the intrusive Hittites in the ME- despite the strong evidence for SSVC use of iron as well as historically unsurpassed indian mastery of iron-working. PRobably we are looking at an earlier mesolithic sinhala presence witha later specifically buddhist iron age overlay.