Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:06:27.356Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Luminescence dating of brick stupas: an application to the hinterland of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ian K. Bailiff ,
Harriet R. Lacey ,
Robin A.E. Coningham ,
Prishanta Gunawardhana ,
Gamini Adikari ,
Chris E. Davis ,
Mark J. Manuel  and
Keir M. Strickland
Ian K. Bailiff
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Harriet R. Lacey
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Robin A.E. Coningham
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Prishanta Gunawardhana
Affiliation:
2Department of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya 11600, Sri Lanka (Email: [email protected])
Gamini Adikari
Affiliation:
3Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya 11600, Sri Lanka (Email: [email protected])
Chris E. Davis
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Mark J. Manuel
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Keir M. Strickland
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The domed stupas are among the most distinctive of South Asia's religious monuments and have been shown to be sensitive indicators for their society. Since arguments for economic and political change depend on accurate dating, and since the stupas are largely composed of brick, the authors here assess the potential for dating building sequences by applying optically stimulated luminescence to brick fabric. As so often, good scientific dates obtained from specimens must be tempered by their context: brick may be replaced or recycled during repair and embellishment. Nevertheless, the method promises important insights by distinguishing different episodes of building, and so writing ‘biographies’ for stupas with different functions.

Keywords

Sri LankaAnuradhapuraBuddhismstupasOSLhinterland
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 335 , March 2013 , pp. 189 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abeyratne, M. 1994. TL dating of Sri Lankan archaeological sites. Quaternary Geochronology (Quaternary Science Reviews) 13: 585–88.Google Scholar
Aitken, M. J. 1998. An introduction to optical dating. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ali, I. & Coningham, R. A. E.. 2002. Recording and preserving Gandhara's cultural heritage, in Brodie, J., Doole, J. & Renfrew, A. C. (ed.) Illicit antiquities: the destruction of the world's archaeological heritage: 25–31. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Bailiff, I. K. 2007. Methodological developments in the luminescence dating of brick from English late-medieval and post-medieval buildings. Archaeometry 49(4): 827–51.Google Scholar
Bailiff, I. K., Blain, S., Gurling, T., Graves, P. & Semple, S.. 2011. Uses and recycling of brick in medieval and Tudor English buildings: insights from the application of luminescence dating and new avenues of research. Archaeological Journal 167: 165–96.Google Scholar
Bandaranayake, S. 1974. Sinhalese monastic architecture: the Viharas of Anuradhapura. Hyderabad: Blackswan.Google Scholar
Bandaranayake, S. 1989. Monastery plan and social formation: the spatial organisation of the Buddhist monastery complexes of the early and middle historical period in Sri Lanka and changing patterns of political power, in Miller, D., Rowlands, M. & Tilley, C. (ed.) Domination and resistance: 179–95. London: Urwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E. 1995. Monks, caves and kings: a reassessment of the nature of early Buddhism in Sri Lanka (Ceylon). World Archaeology 27: 222–42.Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E. 1999. Anuradhapura: the British-Sri Lankan excavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta 2, volume 1: the site. Oxford: Archaeopress for the Society for South Asian Studies (The British Academy).Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E. 2001. The archaeology of Buddhism, in Insoll, T. (ed.) Archaeology and world religion: 61–95. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E. 2006. Anuradhapura: the British-Sri Lankan excavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta 2, volume 2: the artefacts. Oxford: Archaeopress for the Society for South Asian Studies (The British Academy).Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E. 2011. Buddhism, in Insoll, T. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of ritual and religion: 934–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E., Gunawardhana, P., Manuel, M. J., Adikari, G., Katugampola, M., Young, R., Schmidt, A., Krishnan, K., Simpson, I. A., Mcdonnell, G. & Batt, C.. 2007. The state of theocracy: defining an early medieval hinterland in Sri Lanka. Antiquity 81: 699–719.Google Scholar
Coningham, R.A.E., Gunawardhana, P., Adikari, G., Batt, C., Katugampola, M., Krishnan, K., Manuel, M. J., Mcdonnell, G., Schmidt, A., Simpson, I. A., Stern, B., Strickland, K. M. & Young, R.. Forthcoming. The Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) project: the hinterland (phase II): preliminary report of the second, third and fourth seasons (2005, 2006 & 2007). South Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Duller, G.A.T. 2008. Luminescence dating: guidelines on using luminescence dating in archaeology. Swindon: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Gilliland, K., Simpson, I. A., Adderley, W. P., Burbidge, C. I., Cresswell, A. J., Sanderson, D.C.W., Coningham, R.E., Manuel, M., Strickland, K., Gunawardhana, P., Adikari, G.. 2013. The dry tank: development and disuse of water management infrastructure in the Anuradhapura hinterland, Sri Lanka. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 1012–28.Google Scholar
Gunawardhana, P. 2009. Buddhist monasteries towards urbanism in southern Sri Lanka. Pannipitiya: Printel.Google Scholar
ISO International Organization for Standardization. 1993. International vocabulary of basic and general terms in metrology. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.Google Scholar
Longhurst, A. H. 1992. The story of the stupa. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.Google Scholar
Paranavitana, S. 1946. The stupa in Ceylon. Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon: volume 5. Colombo: Ceylon Government Press.Google Scholar
Paranavitana, S. 1970. Inscriptions of Ceylon. Volume 1: Containing rock and other inscriptions from the third century BC to the first century AD and other early Brahmi script. Colombo: Department of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Parker, H. 2001 [1909]. Ancient Ceylon. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, fifth AES reprint.Google Scholar
Shaw, J. 1999. Buddhist landscapes and monastic planning: the elements of intervisibility, surveillance and the protection of relics, in Insoll, T. (ed.) Case studies in archaeology and world religion. The Proceedings of the Cambridge Conference (British Archaeological Reports 755): 5–17. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Shaw, J. 2007. Buddhist landscapes in central India: Sanchi Hill and archaeologies of religious and social change, c. third century BC to fifth century AD. London: The British Association for South Asian Studies (The British Academy).Google Scholar
Silva, R. 1986. Thupa, Thupaghara and Thupa-Pasada: architecture and town planning in Sri Lanka during the early and medieval periods. (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon: volume 10, part 2). Colombo: Department of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Stark, M. T., Sanderson, D. & Bingham, R. G.. 2006. Monumentality in the Mekong delta: luminescence dating and implications. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 26: 110–20.Google Scholar
Verardi, G. 2007. Excavations at Gotihawa and Pipri, Kapilbastu District, Nepal. Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente.Google Scholar
Ward, G. K. & Wilson, S. R.. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20(1): 19–31.Google Scholar