This Sunday at 3 p.m. in Spiro Hall C-2, the Staten Island Archaeology Society and the Archaeology Institute of America will present a lecture by Nancy C. Wilkie entitled, “Archeology in Sri Lanka: Challenges and Prospects for the Future.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
The small island of Sri Lanka, only 25,000 square miles in size, lies off the southern tip of India. It has been known by many names throughout its history: Ratnadipa, or the ‘land of gems’ in Buddhist Sanskrit literature; Taprobane among Greeks and Romans; Serendib to the Arabs, and Ceylon under the British Empire.
Early Iron Age culture was introduced to Sri Lanka, presumably from South India, at the beginning of the First Millennium B.C., but few sites of this period are known except for cemeteries with megalithic graves. Archaeological work in Sri Lanka has concentrated instead on large monastic settlements that were established in the Early Historic Period, ca. 300 B.C. - 300 A.D. and mark the spread of Buddhist influence over the island.
Little attention has been paid to secular sites, nor have the lower levels of most monastic sites been probed to determine the nature of earlier occupation. Also neglected have been the remains of Hindu, Islamic and Christian sites and structures.
The challenge that lies ahead for the next generation of Sri Lankan archaeologists is the investigation of sites and regions that will provide a broader and more balanced picture of the island’s past.
Lecturer Nancy Wilkie is the William H. Laird Professor of Classics, Anthropology and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
For more information about this program, email Professor Sarah Scott. <sarah.scott@wagner.edu>
