Sichuan archaeological team achieves new discoveries in excavating ancient glass processing site in Sri Lanka

From January to February 2024, a joint archaeological team led by the Center for Archaeological Science, Sichuan University, the School of Archaeology and Museology of Sichuan University, the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, and the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, together with the Sri Lanka National Archaeological Bureau and the Department of Archeology of the University of Kelaniya, conducted archaeological excavations at the Pabalugala site in the Northwest Province of Sri Lanka, achieving significant gains.

Under the guidance of the "Belt and Road" initiative, Sichuan University and the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka signed a cooperation agreement for excavation and research in 2017, and carried out three consecutive years of archaeological work in the ancient port of Mantai in the Indian Ocean, opening a new chapter in the archaeology of the Maritime Silk Road.

The Pabalugala site is a crucial link in ancient Indian Ocean trade. The site is located in the Kurunegala Plain in western Sri Lanka and was once an important commodity producing area in the Indo-Pacific maritime trade system. Its products are found in multiple sites from the early historical period of East Asia, dating from the 3rd century BC to the 10th century AD. Due to insufficient past archaeological work, there has been no in-depth understanding of the cultural connotations of the site.

In order to obtain more accurate physical data, this joint archaeological work used a high-precision cesium magnetometer for geophysical archaeological exploration. An excavation area of 48 square meters in the core area of the site revealed multiple remains and a large number of glass production-related artifacts, including the most complete and oldest glass processing site discovered in the world, which has extremely high academic value. Among them, a semi-subterranean kiln was discovered in excavation square T1; multiple ash pits, stone walls, and post hole remains were found in trenches TG2 and TG3, and the unearthed artifacts included a large number of sand-containing red pottery, brown pottery, various colored glass beads, and tens of thousands of glass products, providing valuable physical evidence for studying the cultural characteristics and historical changes of the Pabalugala site.