«Exploring Ancient Kantarodai»: season 2026

The last season of excavations in Kantarodai (Jaffna) took place in July-August 2026 on the ‘stupa site’, in a collaboration between the Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka, the Central Cultural Fund, the University of Jaffna and the German Archaeological Institute.

One main trench (Fig. 1) and two test-pits were opened, two within the stupa area and one in the premises of the monastery. The preliminary results have confirmed the presence of a superstructure consisting of a circumambulation path supported by wooden pillars and covered by roof tiles (including glazed ones) (Fig. 2, 3, 4), as the latest construction phase. Earlier phases have revealed multiple bases of miniature supas, ca. 3m in diameter (Fig. 5), predating the beginning of our era.

The associated material included stone and glass beads (quartz: Fig. 6; glass: Fig. 7), shell beads (Fig. 8), iron objects and reused architectural pieces from dismantled stupas.

These results enhanced the complexity of the site occupation and showed the importance of conducting a large-scale horizontal excavation in the future.