Aligala Galge

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unspecified shelter (perhaps a daylight lit rock shelter or, possibly, a true cave once used as a shelter by man) which yielded the only Early Iron Age settlement in Sri Lanka. ETYMOLOGY: Aligala Galge (in short Aligala) or Aligala shelter (DERANIYAGALA 1992: 734; 1996). SITUATION: At the base of Sigiriya rock (note 1). CULTURAL HISTORY - Archaeology (note 2): DERANIYAGALA (1998, 2001b): The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself in South India by at least as early as 1,200 BC, if not earlier (Possehl 1990; Deraniyagala 1992: 734). The earliest manifestation of this in Sri Lanka is radiocarbon dated to ca. 1000-800 BC at Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in Sigiriya [note 3] (Deraniyagala 1992: 709- 729; Karunaratne and Adikari 1994: 58; Mogren 1994: 39 … So far no other settlements of the Early Iron Age have been located in Sri Lanka —with the exception of the very small-scale deposit within the rock-shelter at Aligala.An unspecified shelter (perhaps a daylight lit rock shelter or, possibly, a true cave once used as a shelter by man) which yielded the only Early Iron Age settlement in Sri Lanka. ETYMOLOGY: Aligala Galge (in short Aligala) or Aligala shelter (DERANIYAGALA 1992: 734; 1996). SITUATION: At the base of Sigiriya rock (note 1). CULTURAL HISTORY - Archaeology (note 2): DERANIYAGALA (1998, 2001b): The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself in South India by at least as early as 1,200 BC, if not earlier (Possehl 1990; Deraniyagala 1992: 734). The earliest manifestation of this in Sri Lanka is radiocarbon dated to ca. 1000-800 BC at Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in Sigiriya [note 3] (Deraniyagala 1992: 709- 729; Karunaratne and Adikari 1994: 58; Mogren 1994: 39 … So far no other settlements of the Early Iron Age have been located in Sri Lanka —with the exception of the very small-scale deposit within the rock-shelter at Aligala.