Funday Times

Gaveshaka winds up the visit to the Pre-historic gallery
Moving on to an agricultural lifestyle
The pre-historic man followed his life support systems to find food by hunting, gathering and foraging. Animals were hunted either individually or collectively. Dead animals were also used as food by burning in fire. There is evidence that cattle, sambur, deer, mouse deer, leopard, porcupine and squirrel were killed for use as food. Birds and jungle fowl, water animals like tortoise, reptiles as well as marine and fresh water fish, snails and shells were also in the list.

In addition to hunting and using animal flesh as food, they ate various yams, wild breadfruit, kakuna seeds and wild plantains. The life-size model of a typical family exhibited at the Pre-historic gallery of the Colombo National Museum is one of its star attractions.

In the Neolithic Period, nomadic hunting and food gathering was transformed into an agricultural lifestyle. Remains of wheat and barley from the ancient grasslands of the Horton Plains have been discovered. These are said to be about 17,000 years old. A display panel illustrates excavations being done in these places.

Pottery and well polished stone implements are distinctive of this period. These have been found from cave sites. Human skeletons have been found from cave excavations in Potana near Sigiriya. Pots have been used for various purposes. Some have been used to make offerings while there are others found in the Ibbankotuwa burial site where they have been used to store human ash. Pomaparippu in the Puttalam district is another site from where pots used for storing human ash have been discovered.

An impressive exhibit is the stone cist (tomb consisting of a stone chest covered with stone slabs) burial discovered at Yatigalpotta near Galewela identified as belonging to 800-400 BC. A large pot containing the human ash and offerings were placed within the stone square. Alongside is an urn where human ash and offerings were placed. This had originally been covered with a circular stone slab.

The transformation from an age using stone implements into the lifestyle of agriculture gradually led to the establishment of permanent habitats. These were especially associated with river valleys, food production, breeding of animals and the use of iron. These formed the basics of state formation and the commencement of a great civilization.

Back to Mirror Magazine