The Evolution of Microliths at Batadomba-lena, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Unresolved questions about the nature and coherence of microlithic production in Sri Lanka underlay many discussions about the microlith tradition in this region as well as the origins of those technologies and norms. Previous studies have not examined whether there were changes over time in the form of the microliths themselves, and in this paper, we conduct a geometric morphometric (GM) assessment of the shape differences over time at the Batadomba-lena site in the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka, excavated by Deraniyagala and Perera. We show that there were complex shifts in microlith shapes, with diversification of forms over time. This finding challenges conventional typological depictions of sameness within microliths and introduces a new approach to studying the evolution of microlith form.