**** NOTICE **** We have moved to a new Home. Please Click Here or type www.amazinglanka.com/prehistoric at the address bar to access the most up-to-date information. |
Batadomba Lena- A Trek into the Lost World -
Out of the tangle of wilderness rose a strange sight. Almost like a page from the lost world.! We stood and stared. Directly ahead of us. Half way up a sheer rock and through a curtain of water we saw the gaping mouth of a cave. This was the famous Batadomba cave of pre historic fame. We may have climbed for the last half hour on what seemed an never ending mountain trail puffing and panting slithering on rock and mud, crossing water falls and trying to outrun the leaches that seemed every bit as earnest as we were to demand their share of the prize. Mother nature was at best all around us The sounds of a water fall lured us from the very beginning. While birds made heavenly music. While the fresh dank smell of earth filled our nostrils. At last we came to view the source of a maddening rush.. The water gamboled and frolicked on the motley boulders. A huge cube shaped boulder stood directly in the way. Almost leading us to believe it had been chiseled smooth and placed with purpose. The water heaved, leaped and bounded upon it and then from it in utter abundance. The trees had now become thick around us with wild flower creepers and exotic fernery. Now the leaches were in real earnest. Blood flowed from our legs. A vertical rock ran parallel to our path , easily to be mistaken for man made. Its surface trailing with moss and fern. We seemed to have lost the water way but we never seemed to loose its music. It appeared to be that we stood in a valley. Ahead in between the trees a picture began to form. And then quite unexpectedly directly before us rose a steep vertical sheet of rock. Its dark features showing intriguing marking. There was a ledge halfway on which could be seen some caves. One was built with a shielding wall of recent times. From the very top of the rock a thin sheet of water spread and fell into an abyss directly in front of the ledge. It was like a flimsy silver curtain shielding the entrance to the cave and moving softly with the swing moods the wind. The surrounding tree scape seemed strangely to compliment each other. Wild creepers clung and completely covered tall trees turning them into the most monstrous shapes. We climbed from the side of the rock to the ledge. Three caves spread leisurely along its rocky face. They were large and airy. Archeological Department excavations were apparent in one cave. We sat and removed the bloody leaches that clung on to our legs listening to the absolute silence of mystery broken only by and the sounds of wind on water. The bulk of the data on pre historic subsistence in Sri Lanka has come from the caves of the wet lowlands Of these sites the two that have produced the best evidence is said to be the Beli lena in Kitulgala and Batadomba lena near Kuruwita. Batadomba lena excavations carried out very briefly by P.E.P. Deraniyagala in the 1940s revealed remains of the kekuna nuts (and nut stones), an abundance of Acavus and Paludomus snails, a few bones of the mahsier fish, bones of python, lots of bird bones including those of the jungle fowl, and mandibles of monkeys and other small mammals. Although bones of cervids and pig were frequently encountered, their jaws and teeth are said to have been scarce – presumably because the heads of these larger animals were left behind at the kill sites after having divested of their edible parts. The occasional boar tusks that were found were probably used as implements. An assortment of human remains , in a very fragmentary state were also excavated. S.U. Deraniyagala writing of excavations conducted more extensively later on say that the Batadombalena have yielded a very large quantity of excellently preserved faunal and floral (carbonized) remains from ca 28,500 to 22, 000 and 16,000 to 11,500 A very large quantity of molluscan remains (Acavus and Paludomus) were found and that most of the vertebrates represented are of small and medium size forms such as giant squirrels porcupines and monkeys. Amongst his many discoveries he says that the discovery of a large marine shell and of a ray’s spine indicates communication with the littoral some 50 kilometers away. The finding of marine molluscan shell fragments suggest that these these had been introduced a items of trade. Evidence from Batadomba lena Indicates that such trade existed from over 16,000 BP. The numerous grinding stones found at the site several with red ochre ( and some with white chalk ) smears, could have also been used for processing plants for food. by Kishanie S. Fernando
Updated
March 25, 2007
|
