RUINS OF 1,500 TOMBS, BUDDHIST TEMPLES FOUND IN YAN OYA PROJECT SITE

Ruins of monasteries and shrine rooms were among the finds and that several of them could be identified and others were in ruins.

Ruins of 1,500 tombs belonging to a megalithic graveyard of the prehistoric age and the ruins of Buddhist temples, had been recovered during the ongoing excavation in Yan Oya area in Wahalkada that would go under the proposed Yan Oya irrigation project, an official said.

The excavation project that commenced in March this year had been completed in November.

Project Officer of the Department of Archaeology A.A. Wijeratne said the Department identified the locations of archaeological importance that would go under the Yan Oya irrigation project and carried out excavations.

He said the findings would be removed to the museum and conserved for posterity.

The archaeologist said one of the two archaeological sites was a Megalithic graveyard and others were Buddhist temples. He said the ruins of monasteries and shrine rooms were among the finds and that several of them could be identified and others were in ruins.

“I am of opinion that Yan Oya area could have been a pre-historic human habitat, but it was not possible to establish the chronology of the graveyard and the Buddhist temples,” he said. He said samples of the ruins would be referred to a German University for research. Excavations Officer A.A. Wijeratne, Research Officer Dr. Thisitha Agalawatte, and Development Officer Dinesh Samankumara carried out excavations on the instructions of Deputy Director of Archaeology (NCP) B.J.P. Dissanayake, Asst. Director (Excavations) S.A.T.G. Priyantha and Director General of Archaeology Prof. P.B. Mandawala.