5/5 Neranjan W. 2 years ago on Google
Ibbankatuwa
is
locatedat
Ibbankatuwa
village
close
to
Sigiriya
on
the
Kurunegala-
Trincomaleemain
road.
It
is
the
bestpreserved
proto-historic
burial
site
in
Sri
Lanka.
The
Ibbankatuwa
Burial
Site
extending
over
a
land
area
of
13
hectares
comprises
of
stone
cist
type
burial
graves
of
the
Megalithic
tradition.
Dr.
Raja
de
Silva,
a
former
Archaeological
Commissioner
in
1970,
conducted
an
excavation
for
the
first
time
in
the
Ibbankatuwa
Burial
Site.
Since
then
during
the
latter
part
of
the
decade
of
the
80s,
a
group
of
local
and
foreign
institutions
comprising
the
Post
Graduate
Institute
of
Archaeology,
the
Central
Cultural
Fund
and
the
KAVA
(The
Kommission
fur
Algemeine
und
Vergleichende
Archaeologie)
of
Germany
that
conducted
two
excavations
in
1988
and
1990,
discovered
a
cluster
of
21burial
chambers
and
the
radio
carbon
dating
of
the
charcoal
found
at
the
site
determined
that
the
site
belonged
to
600
B.C.
An
investigation
of
the
Ibbankatuwa
Burial
Site
was
conducted
by
the
Central
Cultural
Fund
in
2015.
The
investigation
entailed
the
excavation
of
an
area
of
10m
x
10m,
just
west
of
the
cluster
of
21
burial
chambers.
The
earth
was
removed
and
the
site
revealed
the
existence
of
47
additional
burials,
of
which
26
were
stone
urns
containing
the
ashes
of
the
dead
to
be
known
as
stone
urn
burials.
These
burials
comprised
of
chambers;
some
circular
and
others
rectangular,
made
of
simple
granite
slabs.
The
chambers,
some
of
which
were
covered
with
capstone,
contained
various
sizes
of
earthen
receptacles,
big
and
small,
2-10
in
numbers
having
ashes
of
the
dead.
The
earthen
receptacles
of
various
sizes
and
shapes
were
of
two
types
in
red
or
black
clay.
In
addition
metal
implements
made
of
copper
and
iron,
beads
of
different
shapes
and
made
of
a
variety
of
material
were
found
within
them.
Of
the
47
burials
discovered
from
the
excavation,
21
were
earthenware
urns
containing
the
ashes
of
the
dead.
These
burials
are
called
Urn
Burials.
The
Urns
were
either
big
or
small
and
were
made
of
clay
with
some
having
capping
lid
cum
bowl.
Few
smaller
containers
were
discovered
in
some
of
these
receptacles.
The
Ibbakatuwa
site
is
by
far
the
biggest
burial
site
discovered
in
Sri
Lanka.
From
the
spread
of
the
cist
graves,
the
burial
site
is
roughly
about
700m
x
400m
in
extent.
The
human
settlement
discovered
in
Polwatta,
a
site
not
far
from
the
burial
site
is
the
first
such
combination
of
human
settlement
and
its
complementary
burial
site
of
the
Early
Iron
Age,
found
in
this
country.
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