Abstract:
The megalithic burial site at Galgamuwa Andarawewa is situated at Anamaduwa
Secretariat Division in the North Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is evident that 2500
years ago the proto history people had settled in this region. For burying of bodies, they
have constructed different types of burials in several places in this region. Thus, to
examine the geochemical prospection soil samples from the context (n=12), the glass bead
samples from the furnace (n=3) and slag (n=2) were analyzed using X-Ray Fluorescence
(XRF) for 22 major and trace elements. For the archaeological prospection, new findings
of proto-history burials were found in the excavation carried out at Andarawewa and also
many archaeological evidences were found through the field survey and excavations such
as beads, inscriptions, pots and shard and chisels. The elemental values of the slag show
that, Pb (470-483 mg/Kg) and Cu (855-1083 mg/Kg) are very much higher than Upper
Continental Crustal Values. The white part contains higher Pb and Cu than the dark part
of the slag. The concentrations of halides F, Br and I are almost similar in the white (glass)
part and dark (slag) part. The Pb, Cu and as in the glass beads of the Andrawewa furnace
shows that they range between 390-2920, 275-1411 and 12-127 mg/Kg respectively.
However, the Fe and Ti concentrations are much lower than in the contexts though P2O5
is higher in the bead samples. The soil samples from the contexts of the area does not
show high values for almost all the measured elements. Thus, indicating that the soils are
local while the beads may have been prepared with sands brought from other areas. The
carbon dating has dated that this burial belongs to the period from 500- 507 B.C.
