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The Editorial
Get PDFAncient Lanka is an Open Access Journal, which publishes collaboratively reviewed articles and reports on excavations, surveys and material as well as invited or submitted commentary related to reconstructing the past of Sri Lanka. Following a flexible (rolling) publication frequency, Ancient Lanka maintains a multidisciplinary approach in its development of content that is of interest to academics and the general public
Considerations for Seeking Equity and Justice through Pedagogical Partnership : Four Partners in Conversation
Get PDFStudent-faculty pedagogical partnership has recently been understood to have the potential to contribute to equity and justice in postsecondary education. Nevertheless, important equity-related concerns about partnership have also been raised. In a presentation at a previous Symposium on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, one of the co-authors of this article proposed a series of "tentative principles" for working toward equity in and through student-faculty partnership, which synthesized and foregrounded some of these possibilities and critiques. In this article, we share these "tentative principles," as well as a series of critical responses to them, offered by the three co-authors. In so doing, we aim to offer an expanded set of significant considerations for those interested in student-faculty partnership and equity, and to invite and encourage further discussion and critique rather than reify singular principles
The Language of Students: How do Students Label and Define their Class Experience?
No full textEvery day hours are spent in classrooms with professors teaching and students learning - or so we think. As professors, we are expected to engage students in the learning process (Kuh, 2003), keep them entertained (Delaney et al., 2010), impart wisdom, etc. However, what professors see as effective class experiences may be very different from how and why students experience the class as they do. This qualitative study, as the first part of a multiphase research project, sought to identify the language students use to label and describe their perceptions of individual classes. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 24 students, ranging from first to fifth year. Developing an understanding of the labels and definitions students use to articulate their classroom experience may provide insight for both faculty and students in that they may be able to better communicate, or at minimum faculty may better understand how students describe class experiences. Findings may provide both students and faculty ideas into how to create a more effective learning experience
Early Holocene Human Burials from Fa Hien-lena and Kuragala, Sri Lanka
Get PDFFew human burials from Sri Lankan archaeological contexts have been described. Here we report on the analysis of two early Holocene skeletons, FH8, a young adult female skeleton excavated from Fa Hien-lena and dated to 10,640-10,139 cal BP, and BK1, a middle adult male skeleton excavated at Kuragala and dated to 7,170-6,950 cal BP. The skeletons are both highly fragmentary, which poses challenges for their thorough analysis. However, this paper describes the archaeological context, mortuary treatment and archaeothanatology of the burials, post-mortem taphonomy of human remains, the osteobiography of both individuals, and some general observations on their morphology relative to one another and a broader range of late Pleistocene and Holocene foragers. The results demonstrate common elements of funerary treatment between these two burials, such as interment on the left side with right hands placed near or over the face. The FH8 individual died at a young age and shows some signs of early childhood stress. Both skeletons show moderate to high degrees of tooth wear for their relative ages, and no evidence for dental disease. The body size estimates of FH8 and BK1 fall in the range that would be expected of tropical or temperate forest foragers, although BK1 has a relatively low body mass relative to stature, which aligns his phenotype with populations of more arid environments. We demonstrate that much can be potentially learned about human populations and prehistoric behaviours from skeletal analyses.
From Forests to the Coast - Multidisciplinary Investigation of Human Adaptations at the Mini-athiliya Shell Midden, Sri Lanka
No full textOver the last three decades, Sri Lanka has risen to international prominence as a key area for exploring past forager adaptations. Much of this discussion has focused on the lowland rainforests of the Wet Zone of the island, and their preservation of the earliest fossils of our species, bone tools, and microlithic technologies in the region ca. 45,000 years ago. It has been recognized that the northern and southern coasts of Sri Lanka represent crucial locales for studying human occupation and adaptation through the Pleistocene and Holocene. Here, we revisit the important shell midden site of Mini-athiliya (dating to ca. 4,000 cal. years BP), on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, which has yielded human remains alongside microlithic stone tools and animal remains. We present a comparative analysis of body size variation of the human remains belonging to the HMA 6 adult skeleton from Mini-athiliya with a wider database of foragers to investigate local adaptations. We also apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to the tooth enamel of four other individuals documented at Mini-athiliya in order to determine their dietary reliance on forest, grassland, or coastal resources. Together, our results highlight that, rather than a clear distinction between earlier forest adaptations and later coastal specialisation, the Mini-athiliya individuals provide evidence for a plastic spectrum of ecological adaptation. We argue for continued research on how human populations in different parts of the island interacted and adapted to its diverse tropical settings across space and time
Venison for the Citadel: Early Historic Tissamaharama, in Ruhuna, Sri Lanka
Get PDFTissamaharāma known from historic times as Mahagama is one of the earliest and largest urbanised centres in Sri Lanka, dating from the Early Historic period. As part of the collaborative research programme between the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Sri Lanka and the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures (KAAK) of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations were conducted at Tissamaharāma from 1992 to 2010. These extensive excavations at the Tissamaharāma citadel have yielded a very large quantity of excellently preserved faunal remains from the Early Historic Period of ca. 500 BCE to 250 BCE. The analysis of these animal bones indicates the presence of a significant component of large mammals notably, deer (Axis axis). Of considerable importance is the rib of a deer with an embedded broken quartz arrowhead, from the microlithic tradition. The deer represented in this sample was presumably part of the supply of venison to the city dwellers, brought from outside. Our data show that microlithic technology had persisted to at least the Early Historic phase in Sri Lanka.
Looking Back/Looking Forward
Get PDFWelcome to the second issue of Imagining SoTL. This journal was conceptualized to build on presentations given at the annual Banff SoTL Symposium. As the Covid-19 pandemic stretched on, beyond what any of us could have initially imagined, we made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 gathering. As a “pivot” for this second issue, given that we did not have presentations in 2020 to draw from, we invited all presenters from 2010–2019 to contribute to a special issue in celebration of the first nine years of the Symposium, with the theme of Looking Back/Looking Forward.