It has long been believed until recently that the megalithic artifacts from the Indus Valley Civilization of Harappa and those excavated by archaeologists in Pomparippu around Western Sri lanka belonged to the Tamils from South India.. and has been used my many Pro-Eelam protagonists as evidence that the Tamils were the first to colonize the Island..
However!!..
A recent study, using a technique of dental morphological analysis, indicates that ancestors of the present day Sinhalese could have established the island's megalithic culture..
This evidence emerges from the work of American anthropologist Dr. Dane Hawkey. Her thesis is titled:
''Out of Asia: Dental Evidence for Affinities and Microevolution of Early Populations from India/Sri Lanka.''
To draw her conclusions, Dr. Hawkey had compared the teeth of pre-historic and early iron age groups of Sri Lanka with the present communities as well as ancient and modern populations in India, South East Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
The findings appear to demolish the myth that Dravidians established the island's megalithic culture. Dr. Hawkey shows that the skeletal remains at Pomparippu clearly indicate they possessed dental traits much more similar to Sinhalese than Tamils, Veddas or the more primitive Balangoda Man.
The Pomparippu dwellers (who probably lived around 500-1000 BC) followed the iron age burial custom of placing their dead in large clay vessels which were then buried.
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