Of Forests and Grasslands: Human-Animal Palaeoecology in Late Pleistocene-Holocene Sri Lanka

The Wet Zone region of Sri Lanka has provided some of the earliest direct evidence of human utilization of rainforest resources anywhere in the world. Stable isotope analysis of human and animal remains, alongside detailed zooarchaeological analyses, have demonstrated reliance on rainforest resources as far back as 48,000 years ago. In this presentation, I summarize the results of our ongoing research on the fauna remains recovered from excavation of cave sites, including the results of our new investigations focusing on faunal remains from the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene transition, a transition period which has remained relatively under-explored. Our new data provide important new insights on changes in human adaptations and the varying niches of exploited fauna through time as well as Early Holocene human mobility (i.e long-distance foraging and/or trade and contact with other groups). Our findings also provide new information on human-animal interactions, including human relationships with now regionally extirpated taxa.