| Old
Sinhala – 3rd century B.C. – 1st century A.D. Early Sinhala (early period) – 2nd century A.D. – 4th century A.D. Early Sinhala (later period) – 5th century A.D. – 7th century A.D. Medieval Sinhala – 8th century A.D. – 13th century A.D. Modern Sinhala – 14th century A.D. and after |
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| Shelters and fences are erected to protect some of the important inscriptions and boards highlighting basic information about these inscriptions in Sinhala, English and Tamil have been put up near these inscriptions for the benefit of the general public. | |||||
| Numismatics | |||||
| The
objective is to trace the history with the documentation of coin hoards
and finds discovered in various parts of Sri Lanka. A large number
of Ancient coins, which have been unearthed by the excavations conducted
by the Archaeological Department are now being documented. A large
number of coins in hoards were discovered in the recent past.
Different types of coins had been in circulation in the island through out its written history of 2500 years. The work involves the identification and documentation of these coins and makes available the information to study and reconstruct the history of Sri Lanka. These coins are being treated chemically as they are subjected to decay.
The following types of coins are now on display in the Archaeological
Museums. |
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| Punch
marked coins Swastika coins Lakshmi plaques Aka coins Kahavanu Massa |
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| A large number of foreign coins entered the circulation as a result of Sri Lanka becoming a trade centre in the Indian Ocean linking the countries of the Far East and the West. | |||||
| The types are : | |||||
| Punch
marked coins Pandya, Cola, Cera, Pallava from South India Roman and Indo-Roman coins Byzantine coins Chinese coins Portuguese, Dutch and British coins |
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