Items from the Ancient Lankan Civilization in Ruhuna

Some Coins and other specimens that I obtained on site in Ruhuna, Lanka in 2001 December all from or via Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, who provided most of the 280 coins and 300 other items for the monograph and collection published in 1999 Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited. Numismatic and Archaeological evidence on Inland and Maritime trade, by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah M. Wickramasinhe. See Jan Lingen's review of this catalog in ONS.

I have linked below 38 web pages for 18 coins and 26 other items collected on this trip in 2001 December to Lanka. Together with the collection of 12 plate specimens from the book and about 35 more coins in the LakdivaCoin web-site, this now has images and detailed descriptions to a representative sample of the numismatic and other items found in Ruhuna which has been published in the above catalog and by other archaeological surveys. The Internet allows one to exhibit Lankan heritage to the world without exporting the items out of the island, and the prohibitive cost of color printing.

If you a new to this site please read the brief navigating instructions at the bottom of this long page by pulling down the scroll bar on right. Before you Book-mark please Click here.

See Also more Ancient items from 2003, May trip to Lanka.

Many of the coins remain unidentified and if anyone can identify any of them, or has information on the age of items like it please let me know details about it.
Talk at North Eastern Archaeometallurgy Research Group meeting
2002-Jun-18th, Lehigh University, PA USA
Talk at Western Pennslyvania Numismatic Society (WPNS) meeting
2002-Dec-3rd, Pittsburgh, PA USA

Some of these coins of south Indian origin, I was told were found when panning for gems in the Manik ganga which is a river that flows through Katharagama, which is an ancient site of Hindu worship that attracted pilgrims from South India for centuries.


Please click on the colored or underlined link such as on the word coin to get to page with description and images of each of the items listed above. Some of the images are displayed on those pages at less than the scanned resolution of image. To see them at full size if necessary please right click and view image.