Abstract:
Sri Lanka has produced the earliest clear evidence for Homo sapiens fossils in South Asia and research in
the region has provided important insights into modern human adaptations and cultural practices during
the last ca. 45,000 years. However, in-depth multidisciplinary analyses of Late Pleistocene and Holocene
sequences remain limited to just two sites, Fa Hien-lena and Batadomba-lena. Here, we present our
findings from the reinvestigation of a third site, Kitulgala Beli-lena. New chronometric dating from the
site confirms the presence of humans as early as ca. 45,000 cal. BP. in the island’s Wet Zone rainforest
region. Our analyses of macrobotanical, molluscan, and vertebrate remains from the rockshelter show
that this early human presence is associated with rainforest foraging. The Late Pleistocene deposits
yielded evidence of wild breadfruit and kekuna nut extraction while the Holocene layers reveal a heavy
reliance on semi-arboreal and arboreal small mammals as well as freshwater snails as a protein source.
The lithic and osseous artefacts demonstrate that populations developed a sophisticated tool kit for the
exploitation of their immediate landscapes. We place the rich Kitulgala Beli-lena dataset in its wider Sri
Lankan context of Late Pleistocene foraging, as well as in wider discussions of our species’ adaptation to
‘extreme’ environments as it moved throughout Asia.
