A Microlithic Assemblage from the Terminal Pleistocene: Alawala Pothgul-lena Rock Shelter in the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Stone artifact assemblages have long been used for the identification of ancient cultural connections and trends through space and time. In this endeavor, archaeologists have focused on variations in lithic morphology. Sri Lankan sites dated from 47ka onwards, yield stone tools of the microlithic technological tradition. These complex tools are characterized by an expanding range of geometric tools, non-geometric tools, and the novel exploitation and sourcing of raw materials. From the Wet Zone of western Sri Lanka’s Gampaha District, the rock shelter-cave site of Pothgul-lena (PGL) was excavated in 2008-2009. Stone artifacts recovered from PGL belong to the microlithic tool tradition, an enduring technological tradition that has been in use in Lanka from approximately 50,000 years to early historic times. According to C14 dating, the PGL site has been occupied from the terminal Pleistocene (ca. 14ka) into the mid-Holocene (ca. 6ka). Preliminary analysis of artifacts revealed that they were fashioned using the freehand percussion (soft hammer) technique as well as the bipolar technique. The raw material used to produce microliths was quartz of both the clear and milky variety. A high number of cutters, one-edge cutters, scrapers and non-descript flake tools recovered from the excavation are described in this report.