Items from the Ancient Lankan Civilization in Ruhuna

The ancient kingdom of Ruhuna in south-East Sri Lanka, was as important a historical ancient site, and has yielded many ancient artifacts including coins over the past two decades. Ruhuna was one of the main places of trans-shipment for the remote trade between China and the Mediterranean area on the Silk road of the sea.

Some Coins and other specimens that I obtained on site in Ruhuna, Lanka in 2001 December, 2003 May and 2005 March 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. Some Plate Specimens from that collection I obtained from Rajah M. Wickramasinhe in 2000 August, are also included. See Jan Lingen's review of this catalog in ONS.

I have selected and merged below links the web pages in the LakdivaCoin web-site, which now has images and detailed descriptions of 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.

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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.