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

The Wet Zone region of Sri Lanka hasprovided some of the earliest direct evidence of human utilization of rainforestresources anywhere in the world. Stable isotope analysis of human andanimal remains, alongside detailed zooarchaeological analyses, havedemonstrated reliance on rainforest resources as far back as 48,000 yearsago. In this presentation, I summarize the results of our ongoingresearch on the fauna remains recovered from excavation of cave sites,including the results of our new investigations focusing on faunalremains from the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene transition, atransition period which has remained relatively under-explored. Our newdata provide important new insights on changes in human adaptations andthe varying niches of exploited fauna through time as well as EarlyHolocene human mobility (i.e long-distance foraging and/or trade andcontact with other groups). Our findings also provide new information onhuman-animal interactions, including human relationships with nowregionally extirpated taxa.