Fa-Hien Lena Cave | Site of the Earliest Fossil Appearance of Humans in South Asia

Fa-Hien Lena Cave | Site of the Earliest Fossil Appearance of Humans in South Asia

Fa Hien Cave , also known as Fa-Hien Lena Cave , Pahiyangala Lena , Fahiyanlena (Sinhala: පාහියන්ගල ලෙන), is a prehistoric cave situated in Yatagampitiya village in Bulathsinhala, Kalutara District, Sri Lanka. Named after the Chinese Buddhist monk "Fa Hien", the cave is considered a very crucial locale for understanding the physical and cultural evolution of modern humans in Asia. The cave is also the site of the earliest fossil appearance of H. sapiens in South Asia (Langley et al., 2020; Wedage et al., 2019). The cave Fa Hien cave can accommodate about 3,000 persons and therefore is considered one of the largest caves in Sri Lanka (Abeyawardana, 2002). Located about 130 m above mean sea level (Wedage et al., 2019), the cave is about 150 ft high, 175 ft wide, and has a length of 282 ft (Abeyawardana, 2002). Excavations The cave was first investigated in 1968 by the then Assistant Commissioner of Archaeology, S. U. Deraniyagala, when it was being used as a Buddhist cave temple (…