The jungle tide : âcollapseâ in early mediaeval Sri Lanka
This thesis reassesses the Early Mediaeval âcollapseâ of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, through explicit reference to the archaeological record. The study of Anuradhapuraâs terminal period has been dominated by a reliance upon textual sources, resulting in a monocausal and politically charged narrative depicting an eleventh century invasion by the South Indian Colas as resulting directly in the collapse of Anuradhapura (Codrington 1960), bringing to an end over a millennium of rule from Sri Lankaâs first capital. Such is the dominance of this collapse âmodelâ few alternative explanations for the abandonment of Anuradhapura have been posited, and just two alternative collapse models, a âmalarialâ model (Nicholls 1921; Still 1930) and an âimperialâ model (Spencer 1983; Indrapala 2005), have been propounded. This thesis thus aims to test whether Anuradhapura truly âcollapsesâ, and to test the established model for this apparent collapse. After archaeologically defining collapse, the three collapse models are synthesised and translated into archaeological signatures (archaeologically visible characteristics and sequences). This thesis then presents and analyses data from over a century of archaeological
Strickland, Keir Magalie
The jungle tide : âcollapseâ in early mediaeval Sri Lanka. This thesis reassesses the Early Mediaeval âcollapseâ of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, through explicit reference to the archaeological record. The study of Anuradhapuraâs terminal period has been dominated by a reliance upon textual sources, resulting in a monocausal and politically charged narrative depicting an eleventh century invasion by the South Indian Colas as resulting directly in the collapse of Anuradhapura (Codrington 1960), bringing to an end over a millennium of rule from Sri Lankaâs first capital. Such is the dominance of this collapse âmodelâ few alternative explanations for the abandonment of Anuradhapura have been posited, and just two alternative collapse models, a âmalarialâ model (Nicholls 1921; Still 1930) and an âimperialâ model (Spencer 1983; Indrapala 2005), have been propounded. This thesis thus aims to test whether Anuradhapura truly âcollapsesâ, and to test the established model for this apparent collapse. After archaeologically defining collapse, the three collapse models are synthesised and translated into archaeological signatures (archaeologically visible characteristics and sequences). This thesis then presents and analyses data from over a century of archaeological
collapse early mediaeval sri_lanka reassess early mediaeval collapse sri_lanka explicit reference archaeological_record study terminal period dominate reliance upon textual_source result politically charge narrative depict eleventh_century invasion south indian result directly collapse bring_end millennium rule sri_lanka first capital dominance collapse model alternative explanation abandonment posit alternative collapse model model still imperial model spencer propound thus aim_test whether truly collapse test establish model apparent collapse archaeologically define collapse collapse model synthesise translated archaeological signature archaeologically_visible characteristic sequence present analyse_data century archaeological