During the field works in Jaffna

Well, I reckoned it will be good to put some thoughts came to me while working in the Jaffna-Kantarodai research session, 2019. I left Sydney on 5th February, by AirAsia to Sri Lanka, it took another seven hours journey to reach Jaffna by Uttaradevi train. A nice cosy place near to Maruthanamadam Anjaneyar Kovil will be our dwelling for the next few days, until we are returning to the previous one, which was other members of the team stayed since 25th January.

The trenches at the mound are ongoing with some fruitful results. However, it is not a place to mention such. Throughout the survey, some things caught my attention and without keeping them as photographs, why shouldn't I post it here and create a longlasting journal entry?

From systemic context to archaeological context. This pile of bottles from various sodas to alcohol piled around a small termite mound will eventually become an archaeological value if it buried underneath the soil and passed the passage of time for few more years. Yet it is now in the archaeological context, it going in-between of systemic context too. Following is another example. 

These two athiliya and hattiya type potteries are discarded into a scatter of garbage. How long will they preserve in the present condition, and what they can pass to the future about the context they were in use?

Wells of walls covered with limestone or coral bricks are unique to the Jaffna peninsula, and almost all the houses do have a well. In some instances, the well was used for generations, while the settlers are moved very recently and built a new dwelling in a place where there was an old, sometimes wattle and daub houses. Some wells may be redone and altered. Is that the depth, size and the materials can make any classificatory interpretations of these wells?

This is another well with a cement guard wall. The peculiar feature is the limestone step below the wall which has two carved edges at both sides. The way the cut was done and the size of the pillar do not matching with the other recent features in the surrounding, and I could not swallow the fact that dwellers told about it as they purchased it from a stone pillar manufacturer! It seems to be one of the last things you are going to spend on when you are working hard to build a new house. Anyhow, it seems a bit archaic to me.

Sometime back, the farmers let their straw to deteriorate and absorb to their paddy fields. Nowadays, these massive piles of straw transporting to distance and what it takes away is the fertility of the soil. Every single drop of these will lead to?

Mayakkai, a limestone cave formation in Jaffna peninsula can be one of the possible early human habitations in the region. Above is a panoramic view of the location and the caves filled with soil are located in the left corner. The terrain is flat, and the slope is toward the caves which causing the flooding and submergence of the caves during the rainy seasons. The present note especially for a folk story which was told by Prof Krishnaraja while we are looking at the location.

"The name Mayakkai derived from an early term referred to the caves 'Mayakkuhai' or the 'caves of magic (or Maya). It said the flat terrain in front of the caves was a paddy field at one point of the time. Farmers experience that their paddy was eating by a herd of cows but was unable to locate the whereabouts these cows are coming. One day, one of the farmers stayed alert all night, and he saw a herd of cows are coming through the cave and started to eat paddy. When the animal left before the dawn, he tried to stop on of cows by pulling its tail, but the animal managed to escape by pulling the man with it into the cave. The farmer saw a bright light inside of the cave, and when he walked towards, it was some unusual group of people who are doing sort of ritual and spoke a different language. When they found the farmer was watching them, they cursed him not to say anything to anyone what he saw in the cave, and if he does so, he will die at the very moment. Afraid to death, the man was able to keep his promise until one point, but at one day he breached it. He told his wife about the cave and all that he saw and died. Since then people started to call the caves as 'Mayakkuhai'...

The rock on the top of the granite stone is limestone. The informant who we spoke with named it as Katti kallu or forest stone they bought from Milankadu stone quarry. The origin of these names can be something worth to study.

 

The houses made with sunburnt bricks are something unusual to see in the area. In the above case, it seems the brick is made with a mixture of soil and grit but not clay. The bricks are highly loose and were exposed to the rain and wind, most of the bricks are decayed while the cement bond remains intact. When talking about the building materials can we outline some phases that people were able to afford stronger materials as rocks and some periods they relied on wattle and daub? Such an attempt will be usefull when talking about the settlement history and the economy of the region.