Mesolithic
The island appears to have been colonised by the Balangoda Man (named after the area where his remains were discovered) prior to 34,000 BP. They have been identified as a group of Mesolithic hunter gatherers who lived in caves. Fa Hien Cave has yielded the earliest evidence (at c. 34,000 BP) of anatomically modern humans in South Asia.
Several of these caves including the well known Batadombalena and the Fa Hien Cave have yielded many artefacts that points to them being the first modern inhabitants of the island. There is evidence from Beli-lena that salt had been brought in from the coast earlier than 27,000 BP
Several minute granite tools of about 4 centimetres in length, earthenware and remnants of charred timber, and clay burial pots that date back to the Stone Age Mesolithic people who lived 8000 years ago have been discovered during recent excavations around a cave at Varana Raja Maha vihara & also in Kalatuwawa area.
It is suspected that the hunter gatherer people known as the Wanniyala-Aetto or Veddas, who still live in the Central, Uva and North-Eastern parts of the island may be descendants of the Balangoda people.
The skeletal remains of dogs from Nilgala cave and from Bellanbandi Palassa, dating from the Mesolithic era, about 4500 BC, suggest that Balangoda People may have kept domestic dogs for driving game. The Sinhala Hound is similar in appearance to the Kadar Dog, the New Guinea Dog and the Dingo. It has been suggested that these could all derive from a common domestic stock. It is also possible that they may have domesticated jungle fowl, pig, water buffalo and some form of Bos (possibly the ancestor of the Sri Lankan neat cattle which became extinct in the 1940s.)
The Balangoda Man appears to have been responsible for creating Horton Plains, in the central hills, by burning the trees in order to catch game. However, evidence from the plains suggests the incipient management of Oats and Barley by about 15,000 BC.
Read more about this topic: Prehistory Of Sri Lanka