ARS - 2005
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/162
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Item 'One Man's Rubbish, another Man's Treasure': the Fundamental Problems Associated with Archaeological Ceramic Analysis(Proceedings of the Annual Research Symposium 2005-Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2005) Gunawardhana, PrishantaThe purpose of this paper is to give an introduction into archaeological pottery analysis. This paper will begin by discussing the origins of pottery. The earliest ceramic objects found are fired clay figurines from Dolni Vestonice in Czechoslovakia, which date to 26,000 years ago (Vandiver et al 1989). It was during the early Holocene, when societies became more sedentary, that pottery began to become a common tool. The earliest pottery found in Sri Lanka is from the Proto-historic period (Bandaranayake 1992). Pottery is one of the most important artifacts to the archaeologist. It has the benefits that it is durable, found on most sites and often in large quantities. Another benefit is that pottery is easily broken, because of this it regularly features in the archaeological record, providing researchers with large quantities of information; it also means that it is frequently replaced, allowing styles to develop. This leads to the further use of pottery as a dating method. Because of the development of styles over time, we can chart as it becomes popular and then falls out of fashion, and then use this to propose a chronology. Social status can also be suggested at, based on certain indicators of wealth and their presence or absence, such as artifact types, the amount of labour required for production, and the scarcity and cost of resources used in the production(Sinopoli 1991). This paper will finish by addressing the problems associated with pottery analysis. One is the movement of artifacts, during deposition and also the movement of the sherds over time. Also there a huge backlog of unsorted pottery developing, partly due to poor practice, but also due to lack of pottery specialists, which means large quantities of data is left unutilized. Another significant problem is the lack of adequate storage facilities, whereby new pottery cannot be stored and old pottery cannot be accessed.Item Tsunami: Affected Archaeological Heritage Sites in the Western Province,Sri Lanka(Proceedings of the Annual Research Symposium 2005-Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2005) Gunawardhana, Prishanta; Katugampola, MangalaSri Lanka’s archaeological heritage goes back from the Historical period right back to the Protohistoric and Prehistoric periods (Deraniyagala, 1996, Silva, 1990). This archaeological heritage includes a variety of outstanding monuments, buildings and sites. Significantly, some of them are now declared as World Heritage sites. It is evident that Tsunami has devastated much of the coastal belt in Sri Lanka that hit and destroyed the people lives and their property. More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 900,000 have been made homeless. The UNESCO World heritage site of Galle was not seriously affected. However, the Maritime archaeological museum located within this environment has been subjected to some damage due to flooding in the area. It is almost certain that some of the cultural heritage sites and the cultural landscape of the costal belt has also been greatly damaged or destroyed. The damage is extensive and the sites need to be conserved within the framework of archaeological principles. This paper is intended to discuss the damage to the cultural heritage in the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts of the Western Province of Sri Lanka. We have identified twenty eight sites which have been affected by the tsunami disaster in these three districts (Gunawardhana and Katugampola, 2005). In this paper, we will also describe the scale of the damages to the archeological heritage sites in the Western Province.