Prehistory[edit]

Main article: Prehistory of Sri Lanka

Evidence of human colonization in Sri Lanka appears at the site of Balangoda. Balangoda
Man arrived on the island about 125,000 years ago and has been identified as Mesolithic hunter-
gatherers who lived in caves. Several of these caves, including the well-known Batadombalena and
the Fa Hien Cave, have yielded many artifacts from these people, who are currently the first known
inhabitants of the island.
Balangoda Man probably created Horton Plains, in the central hills, by burning the trees in order to
catch game. However, the discovery of oats and barley on the plains at about 15,000 BCE suggests
that agriculture had already developed at this early date. [6]
Several minute granite tools (about 4 centimetres in length), earthenware, remnants of charred
timber, and clay burial pots date to the Mesolithic. Human remains dating to 6000 BCE have been
discovered during recent excavations around a cave at Warana Raja Maha Vihara and in the
Kalatuwawa area.
Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka and has been found in Ancient Egypt as early as 1500 BCE,
suggesting early trade between Egypt and the island's inhabitants. It is possible that
Biblical Tarshish was located on the island. James Emerson Tennent identified Tarshish with Galle.[7]
The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself in South India by at least as early
as 1200 BCE, if not earlier (Possehl 1990; Deraniyagala 1992:734). The earliest manifestation of this
in Sri Lanka is radiocarbon-dated to c. 1000–800 BCE at Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in
Sigiriya (Deraniyagala 1992:709-29; Karunaratne and Adikari 1994:58; Mogren 1994:39; with the
Anuradhapura dating corroborated by Coningham 1999). It is very likely that further investigations
will push back the Sri Lankan lower boundary to match that of South India. [8]
During the protohistoric period (1000-500 BCE) Sri Lanka was culturally united with southern India.,
[9]
 and shared the same megalithic burials, pottery, iron technology, farming techniques
and megalithic graffiti.[10][11] This cultural complex spread from southern India along with Dravidian
clans such as the Velir, prior to the migration of Prakrit speakers.[12][13][10]
Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura,
where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE. The settlement was about 15 hectares
in 900 BCE, but by 700 BCE it had expanded to 50 hectares. [14] A similar site from the same period
has also been discovered near Aligala in Sigiriya.[15]
The hunter-gatherer people known as the Wanniyala-Aetto or Veddas, who still live in the central,
Uva and north-eastern parts of the island, are probably direct descendants of the first inhabitants,
Balangoda Man. They may have migrated to the island from the mainland around the time humans
spread from Africa to the Indian subcontinent.
Later Indo Aryan migrants developed a unique hydraulic civilization named Sinhala. Their
Achievements include the construction of the largest reservoirs and dams of the ancient world as
well as enormous pyramid-like stupa (dāgaba in Sinhala) architecture. This phase of Sri Lankan
culture may have seen the introduction of early Buddhism.[16]
Early history recorded in Buddhist scriptures refers to three visits by the Buddha to the island to see
the Naga Kings, snakes that can take the form of a human at will. [17]
The earliest surviving chronicles from the island, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, say
that Yakkhas, Nagas, Rakkhas and Devas inhabited the island prior to the migration of Indo Aryans.