By Susanne Loos-Jayawickreme
Fresh in retirement,
Dr. Siran Deraniyaga-
la, former Director-General of the Department of Archaeology (1992 - 2001) is still, however, tirelessly trekking through Sri Lanka in search of its early past.
In tune with modern technology, the explorer of ancient times has his own website. "An idea of my wife," he admits with a smile. So far, more than 9,000 visitors have logged on to www.deraniyagala.de and www.the-prehistory-of-sri-lanka.de while surfing in cyberspace, to get to know more about the exciting world of prehistory in Sri Lanka.
As a young man, fresh from the Universities of Cambridge and London, Siran Deraniyagala returned overland to Sri Lanka in 1965, hitchhiking from London to India through Iran and Afghanistan. After a year's stay in India working with Indian scholars on the latest findings in Indian prehistory, he journeyed home in 1966 to begin his work on the country's pre-Vijayan past, going on to later produce his book, The Prehistory of Sri Lanka.
His years in the UK and later at Harvard University in the USA where he gained his Ph.D., were an important formative period in his life, mainly on account of the world-renowned scholars who taught him, such as Profs. Sir Harold Bailey, K. de B. Codrington, Frederick Zeuner, Christoph von Fuerer-Heimendorf and Hallam Movius among others.
He was inspired by his late father Prof. P.E.P. Deraniyagala who was Director of National Museums from 1939 to 1963. Although a zoologist by profession, Deraniyagala Snr. specialized in a wide range of subjects, which included marine biology, reptiles, elephants, bioanthropology and prehistory (in addition to being a famous boxer who defeated the lightweight champion of the British Imperial Army, Navy and Air Force in 1923!).
"So it was not unnatural for me to be immersed in the subjects of archaeology and prehistory from a very early age," Dr. Deraniyagala reflects. "I would not say it's a passion. I have many other interests beyond archaeology which include fine arts and music," the martial arts expert cum aesthete admits.
Dr. Deraniyagala reveals what is probably the most important factor for his success: "Since assuming duties in the Archaeological Department in 1968 up to my retirement in November 2001, I was very lucky that nobody ever interfered in my work. I received unstinted support from the government and all the heads of department I worked for."
Archaeology is the study of the past through physical remains, in contrast to history, which is the study of the past through writings. The subject that links the two together is epigraphy, which means the study of the past through contemporaneous inscriptions (usually found on rocks). However, epigraphy is just one sub-discipline in the study of past culture, Dr. Deraniyagala explains.
Interestingly, the British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler referred to archeology as the handmaiden of history. But it is now not so in Sri Lanka, where the field of history has been worked on over and over again and the study of the past is now increasingly dependent on archaeological research. "The roles have been reversed and now it is history that is the handmaiden of archaeology," Dr. Deraniyagala points out.
The beginnings of human beings both physically and culturally go back three to four million years in Africa. However, there are still plenty of uncharted areas with regard to human origin. In Sri Lanka, prehistoric man has lived at least 125,000 years ago with the possibility of existence as far back as 500,000 years ago. Advanced 'microlithic' tool making technology had already been developed in Sri Lanka 30,000 years ago, when Europe was still dreaming of this technology which arose there only about 12,000 years ago.
"I am interested in the early periods, because there is no present without the past and therefore no future without the past. You can't plan the future without an in-depth understanding of our very early roots, which has fashioned our mental and physical constitution. 99.9 per cent of this past belongs to the prehistoric period," he says. "We still have to understand the distant past of this country and we have a long way to go before we can adequately comprehend its biological and cultural roots."
Sri Lanka has immense potential for archaeological investigations, says Dr. Deraniyagala who now serves the Department as Consultant. "At the moment, the most important excavation in Sri Lanka takes place in the ancient city of Anuradhapura which extends down to 10m below ground level over an area of 100 ha from the 10th century B.C. to the 11th A.D."
Under his guidance, with Prof. Sudarshan Seneviratne as his Co-Director, the citadel of Anuradhapura is being excavated on a large scale. It has indeed been an epoch-making excavation.
The time between 1968 and 2001, he feels, was extremely dynamic in the field of archaeology in Sri Lanka with the Archaeological Department making great advances, which has put Sri Lanka even ahead of India in certain fields.
After 1984, his focus was on the transition from prehistory to the historical period. It revealed an unsuspected aspect of Sri Lankan antiquity: Anuradhapura had an advanced iron using and horse breeding culture dating as far back as the 10th century B.C. - and not as traditionally thought only from the 6th century B.C. onwards. It now appears as if the rise of an urban culture in Sri Lanka occurred parallel to that of North India in the Ganges valley. The same excavations brought to light evidence of writing in Brahmi script in the 6th century BC, some 300 years before the reign of Emperor Asoka. India has yet to match this discovery.
Other excavations starting in 1992 show stirring revelations of the old Kingdom of Ruhuna which will continue in Tissamaharama-Akurugoda and Godavaya, just to name a few other interesting ancient sites in the south.
One of the most impressive collaborative projects Dr. Deraniyagala has worked on is the recent bioanthropological study of Dr. Diane Hawkey from the State University of Arizona. The latter has worked on the genetic links between human skeletal remains of Sri Lankan prehistoric humans from 37,000 years ago onwards up to recent times, using Veddah and other prehistoric and recent material from South, South East and West Asia and Australia for comparisons. The exciting results have resulted in new theories about the links between prehistoric and more recent groups. This new database highlights the relationship between the Sri Lankan prehistoric humans (Balangoda Man) and the Australians and Melanesians on one hand and tribal groups in India and recent Veddahs. These studies also revealed genetic similarities between the people of the Indus Civilization in North West India and recent Sri Lankan material.
A major achievement during his tenure in office was the revision of the antiquities law of 1940 which had been revised only once, way back in 1956. In 1998, it was amended again on a proposal made by Dr. Deraniyagala to upgrade the management of the archaeological heritage of Sri Lanka for posterity.
As for the future, Dr. Deraniyagala says that human resources, in particular the quality of archaeologists, has to be improved in the upper and middle professional levels for strategic and tactical planning and implementation. "In certain fields such as post-excavation analysis and report writing, we have a long way to go to reach international standards," he says. Many more qualified people are urgently needed. "At least 2000 professional archaeologists up to international standards should work in this country to manage our archaeological heritage," he says.
"Without enough professional archaeologists, we can't do justice to what we are blessed with. The now mandatory implementation of archaeological impact assessments will need the services of a very large pool of archaeologists. Moreover, an archaeological master plan for Sri Lanka is urgently needed. If we don't have one it could endanger a unique non-renewable resource of our country," Dr. Deraniyagala concludes.
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