Illustration 2.4. A drawing which displays the house that was built in Udaranchamadama in 1129 B.C. This was created
according to the foundation discovered in the excavation.
Life Style
Still there is no enough evidence to get an idea of
the nature of the life style in the proto-historic era
of Sri Lanka. So far excavations have only been
done in burial grounds, and therefore, the
evidences on the general life style during that
period are limited. The information gathered
in excavations in the residential place in
Udaranchamadama assists in getting some idea
on this.
In Udaranchamadama a house, which was
built around 3000 years ago, was excavated. A
number of potsherds were discovered inside
the house. Among them there were a lot of
painted potsherds. The white background of the
outside and the bottom side of the pot had been
beautified by painting red lines. In the manner
in which lines have symmetrically been painted,
it is sure that it was made by using a potter’s
wheel. Other potsherds of such a pot were found
in an excavation done in a residential place in
Haldummulla.There were several tools in the kitchen of the
excavated house. Among them, there were some
stone tools and iron tools. As many of the tools
of that collection are stone, it seems that using
iron tools had been a new experience for them
by then. Among the other debris in the kitchen,
there remained the bones of animals which
were hunted by the inmates of the house for
their meals. These bones belong to animals like
deer, cattle, wild boar, and giant squirrel. These
evidences show that although they got used to
an agricultural life style, they did not completely
abandon hunting.Among the other things found in the house, there
were a few clay beads, an iron stick used to apply
kohl on ladies’ eyes, two brown stones (ochre, one
yellowish and the other reddish in colour used
to colour the body and two grinding stones to