Sri Lankan archaeologists have excavated 17 gold-plated bronze Buddha statues from a rampart of the Abhayagiri temple complex in Anuradhapura, in what officials describe as the most significant discovery at the protected site in more than three decades.
The find was made on Tuesday during excavations at the ancient capital in the island’s north-central region, and was disclosed on Wednesday in an AFP report carried by Bangladesh’s BSS news agency.
Thusitha Herath, project manager at the government’s Central Cultural Fund, told AFP from the excavation site that the scale of the find set it apart. “We have found artefacts before, but this is the first time we have seen such a large number of statues,” he said.
Dated to the seventh and eighth centuries
The bronze statues, plated in gold, carry features similar to artefacts from the seventh and eighth centuries and are estimated to be about 1,200 to 1,300 years old, Herath said. They were found buried at random within the Sacred City of Anuradhapura, roughly 210 kilometres north of Colombo.
The artefacts have been sent for further testing. Herath said the Central Cultural Fund hopes to put them on public display within about a month.
A site under conservation obligation
The Sacred City of Anuradhapura has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1982, a designation that carries conservation responsibilities for the government. The Central Cultural Fund has carried out excavations at the site since that recognition.
Abhayagiri was one of the great monastic centres of the ancient capital, believed to have operated as a monastery more than 2,000 years ago. The area is known to have accommodated a mix of Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist doctrines, drawing scholars and pilgrims from China and India.
The discovery follows other recent excavation work at protected sites, including Yapahuwa, where an underground clay pipeline was uncovered, and a fifth phase of excavation at Polonnaruwa.
No Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own account of the Abhayagiri find at the time of writing.
