Quartz Implements from Ceylon
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2744511 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C G Seligmann (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1908 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Pages | 113 |
| Publication date | 1908-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Man (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0025-1496 • E-ISSN: 2397-2548 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2840788 |
| OpenAlex | W2796938189 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
From these facts it appears that at one time there must have been in Ceylon a considerable population who worked quartz, and that this people was widely distributed, extending at least from the Southern into the Central and Eastern Provinces and occupying heights varying from the low forest country of the Eastern Province to at least 4,000 feet.The material they used is refractory and does not occur in large masses.The latter factor probably accounts for the small size of the implements they produced, and also probably for the rough nature of most of them; but when the best samples of their work is examined it appears that their industry was neolithic.Whether or no the quartz workers actually were Veddas, as suggested by the Sarasins, and, as seems reasonable enough, they occupied the caves used recently and at the present day by the Veddas of Uva, and, since these caves present undoubted evidence of being used by the Sinhalese of about 2,000 years ago, it may be presumed that the Sinhalese turned the cave-dwellers out of their rock shelters, or, perhaps, peaceably occupied these, and that when the Sinhalese neglected the part of Uva in which the caves are found the cave-dwellers drifted back to them.But the cave-dwellers of the present day are Veddas, and there is evidence that three or four centuries ago there was a strong Vedda population in the country extending from the neighbourhood of the caves in Uva to Matale in the Central Province.Taken with the inscription in Bendia Galge cave, in which the common Vedda name Nila is mentioned, this suggests that the quartz workers were, in fact, Veddas.If this be so it appears to indicate a much older and more intimate association between cave-dwelling Veddas and the Sinhalese Lhan is usually realised, and there are other facts which seem to me to point to this conclusion.My best thanks are due to Messrs. Green and Pole for permitting me to make free use of their collections.C. G. SELIGMANN
Ceylon · Metallurgy · Programming language · Quartz · Computer Science · Linguistics and language evolution · Materials Science
| Citations per year | 0.27 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2024 (10) |
| Highly cited | No |