KABARA GALGE

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A cave entrance (7.9 m wide, 4 m high) leads to a relatively short cave (up to 5.8 m wide, 9 m high, 15 m long) which DERANIYAGALA (1955: 300-301) regarded as a rock shelter (sic!) because archaeological excavation yielded evidence indicating that people of the prehistoric Udupiyan tribe used the cave to take shelter. ETYMOLOGY: The Singhala -kabara- is a blotched white. SITUATION 1955: At a travelling distance of seven to eight miles (11 or 13 km generally south) from Ratnapura (N06°40'58”: E080°23'57” WGS84) on a mountain side above the village of Käkulé or Kekule (note 1) near Hangamuwa (note 2). The entrance to the cave is reached by walking upstream along the bed of a stream that is active only during heavy rains (DERANIYAGALA, P E P 1955: 300). SITUATION 1974: Kekule village lies in the Karawita area [note 3], south of Hangomuva [a village] at the end of the minor road from Kotamulla [note 4] on the Ratnapura - Palawela road [note 5]. On the mountain side above the village, t an elevation of approximately 600 feet [185 m], is a cave (or a rock shelter) named Kabara Galge. Access to this site is achieved by ascending the dried bed of a stream which contains no water except during heavy rains. … The site is seven to eight miles from Ratnapura (CEYLON TRAVELLER 1974: 249; 1983: 250). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1974: The cave, which extends inwards for fifty feet [15 m], has a twenty-six foot [7.9 m] wide entrance. The floor of the cave is nineteen feet [5.8 m] wide while the roof is thirty feet [9 m] from the floor. There is a perennial stream a mile away, possibly the source of a permanent drip from the rock above the cave (CEYLON TRAVELLER 1974: 249; 1983: 250). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1995: A 7 m wide and 4 m high cave entrance in gneiss leading to a 8 m long cave chamber which yielded some very rich deposits when archaeologically excavated by Deraniyagala, P E P in 1953 [sic!] (Brooks 1995 Mss: no. 26 after: DERANIYAGALA, S U 1980: 174).CULTURAL HISTORY - archaeology: Srface exploration of the cave floor yielded pitted pebbles, characteristic of the Udupiyan tribe of Homo Sapiens Balangodensis. Other stone age 'finds' included anvils, grindstones, snail shells, animal bones, stone impements and flakes in addition to some bone artefacts.rface exploration of the cave floor yielded pitted pebbles, characteristic of the Udupiyan tribe of Homo Sapiens Balangodensis. Other stone age 'finds' included anvils, grindstones, snail shells, animal bones, stone impements and flakes in addition to some bone artefacts.