Abstract
Veddah is the last remaining group of people in Sri Lanka who are believed to be the descendents of the prehistoric man. Therefore an evolutionary point of view Veddah could be the true survival of the fittest present in Sri Lanka. A new project is launched under the auspicious of the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology of the University of Kelaniya in order to obtain information from the Veddah particularly for the reconstruction of the prehistoric lifestyle and to characterize the artifacts found in the archaeological excavations. This attempt would be successful and efficient if the life and culture of the Veddah’s is known better because Veddah it is hypothesized in this project that the Veddah would be the last remaining link to the prehistoric man in Sri Lanka. Once a month for one complete year Dambana and surrounding Veddah villages would be visited to observe how environment, ecology and human behavior change in an annual circler. Those three dimensions would be studied by living with them and from formal interviews. Basically, three topics have already been identified for further studies such as hunting practices, aboriginal taxonomy, and fishing practices.
Weliange W.S1, A.S Dandeniya2, Prageeth Elgiriya1, B. Nalin Deepal Munasinghe3, Gamini Adikari1 & Nimal De Silva1
1Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, 407, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka
2BGJF
Consultancy Services, 35A ½, Sunethradewi Road Kohuwala, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
3Vanneale-eththo Heritage Center, Dambana