Abstract
DRS. F. AND P. SARASIN recently made an expedition to Ceylon for the express purpose of investigating the caves now and in past times inhabited by the Veddahs, to see whether any stone implements could the discovered. Their earlier researches proved the Veddahs to belong to a lower and older type than the other inhabitants of Ceylon, and it is conceded that they must represent the few remnants of the aborigines who were met with by the Sinhalese on their first arrival, and by whom they were called Yakas, according to the tradition preserved in the Mahawansa. Presumably, these autochthones were at that time living in their Stone age; but no record of Veddah stone implements occurs in anthropological literature. From an article in the Ceylon Observer of April 22, written by these indefatigable travellers, we find that on this, their fourth, expedition into the Veddah country they were lucky enough to find a cave near the village of Nilgala, which until very recently was inhabited by Veddahs, the soil of which contained in great abundance stone implements of a very rough kind. Further investigations of some other caves, one near Kattragam, the other near Kalodai, led to an identical result. They also succeeded in discovering upon the hilltops of the country of Upper Uva the same rough stone implements in great quantities and still well preserved. Not only the autochthony of the Veddahs can be regarded as a proved fact, but also their former distribution over probably the whole island, including the low country as well as the mountainous districts.
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H., A. The Discovery of Stone Implements of Palæolithic Type in Veddah Caves . Nature 76, 82 (1907). https://doi.org/10.1038/076082a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/076082a0