Director General of Archaeology Dr Senarath Dissanayake made a request to the public not to create religious issues based on Kuragala Site protection activities.

He made this announcement on Saturday after a group of monks and laymen of ‘Sinhala Ravaya’ held a protest in Kuragala. Police said the group attempted to damage a construction, which the Muslims believe to be a 12th Century mosque. Buddhists believe it to be an ancient Buddhist monastery.

Kuragala in Balangoda is the oldest archaeological site found so far in the Intermediate Zone of the country and as such the Department of Archaeology has taken all steps to protect the site, Dr Senarath Dissanayake said.

He further said that according to the radio-carbon dating done by the US institute using sophisticated technologies, the Kuragala site had five layers of human habitations from 16,000 to 6,000 years before the present age (BPA). "This is the oldest date for a site inhabited. This seconds the previous first which was found at Bellanbendipelessa. The Bellanbendipelessa was dated 13,000 years BPA", he added.

The Department of Archaeology has conducted extensive excavations in the Kuragala site from April to December last year. The caves at the Kuragala site had been used as a Buddhist monastery from third Century BC to first century AD. Dr Dissanayake added that some of the caves had been inhabited by the humans in the pre-historic period.

During the excavations, the archaeologists had found stone tools, fossilized bone fragments and a complete human skeleton. The skeleton was later sent to the University of Oxford for testing, Dr Dissanayake said, adding that the skeleton would be returned to Sri Lanka once the scientific testing is over.

One of the most striking discovery from the site was the evidence that humans lived in the Kuragala caves had close links with coastal areas. Among the items found were sea shells, shells of clams living in the sea, indicating that the humans who lived there during the prehistoric times had consumed them.

The Department of Archaeology would conduct further excavations this year to study the settlement patterns of the prehistoric man, Dr. Dissanayake said. He called upon the public not to create religious issues based on these activities.