Delgahawaththage Raj Kumar Somadeva was born on 01 November 1960[2] in Wellawaya, Sri Lanka. He is the eldest among a family of six children born to a Tamil mother and a Sinhala father.[3]
As his father was a government public servant, the family moved around the country, and he therefore had to switch schools regularly. As a result, he had attended Poojapitiya Madhya Maha Vidyalaya, Nivithigala Sumana Maha Vidyalaya, Ehaliyagoda Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Hidellana Sivali Madhya Maha Vidyalaya, Minuwangoda Nalanda Vidyalaya, Pitipana Roman Catholic Vidyalaya, Kalutara Holy Cross College and eventually Kalutara Vidyalaya.[2][3]
Higher education
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Archaeology in 1986, and in 1994 earned his Master of Philosophy degree in the same discipline, both from the University of Kelaniya. In 2006 he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Archaeology from the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University in Sweden.[2]
Somadeva served as an Assistant Director of the Sigiriya - UNESCO - Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Project from 1989 to 1994. During that period he also worked as the Field Director of the German-Sri Lanka collaboration excavation project and the Swedish-Sri Lanka Settlement archaeology project held in Sigiriya-Dambulla region.
He contributed his service as a member of the advisory committee to the Director General of Archaeology in Sri Lanka and to the Department of National Archives.
He also extended his capacity to revise the history teaching syllabuses in schools and has written several chapters to the current history textbooks.[5]
As of 2022[update], he serves as a senior professor in archaeology at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya.[1]
In 2022, he was appointed as a member of the advisory committee to the Ministry of Tourism in Sri Lanka.[6]
Currently, he is serving as a consultant to several projects funded by the UNDP.
Research
Somadeva's main field of study is ancient urbanisation in Sri Lanka. He spent six years from 1999 to 2005 in the south and south-eastern part of Sri Lanka to understand the historical development of urbanism in that area which has been described in the national historical chronicles and the lithic inscriptions. During that period he undertook several macro-scale reconnaissance surveys and nine archaeological excavations in the Lower Kirindi Oya basin. The results of the fieldwork were presented to his doctoral degree at Uppsala University as his thesis, The Origins of Urbanism in Southern Sri Lanka.[7]
After completing his PhD, he investigated the problems related to the pre and proto-historic transition in Sri Lanka. As a result of his fieldwork, he identified a new transitional phase in the later prehistory occupied by the advanced hunter-gatherers of the Holocene. Somadeva was able to explain how the late Holocene hunter-gatherers were resilient to climate change and how they adapted to floral resource exploitation for their survival. Now he is concerned to understand the cognitive advances of the advanced hunter-gatherers of the late Holocene in the country.[8]
He has published seventy-five research papers both locally and internationally, in addition to his seventeen books.[9]
Somadeva considers that Buddhism existed in Sri Lanka before the arrival of Mahinda, and that the history of Sri Lanka goes beyond the period of Vijaya and Kuveni. This is contrary to the widely accepted view, which is that promoted by the 5th-century Mahawamsa.[10]
Recognition and honours
In 1998 he won the top ten in Sri Lanka Award for the category of Academic Leadership and Accomplishment.
In 2005 he was awarded the Charles Wallace Research Fellowship from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.[11]
He is also a member of the World Archaeological Congress.
His publication titled Rock Paintings and Engraving Sites in Sri Lanka won the State Literary Award for the Best Academic Publication in English, in the year 2013.[4][12]
Bibliography
Books
Author
පුරාවිද්යාවේ න්යායය, ක්රමවේද සහ භාවිතය (අනුවාදය) (in Sinhala). 2000.
Urban Origins in Southern Sri Lanka. Studies in global archaeology - 9. Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. 2006. ISBN9789197321259. OCLC416723069.[7][13][14]
The Nilgiriseya Survey. Memoirs of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology. Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Colombo. 2012. OCLC820942684.[17][18]
Excavations at Manabharana Vihara at Siyambalanduva. Memoirs of the Archæological Survey of Ceylon. Colombo: Archaeological Survey Department of Sri Lanka. 2013. ISBN9789559159841. OCLC864400502.[21]
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ප්රාග් ඉතිහාසය (in Sinhala). 2015.
කල්තොට සමීක්ෂණය (in Sinhala). 2015.
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ආදි ඉතිහාසය (in Sinhala). 2017.
පුරාවිද්යාත්මක න්යායයේ වර්ධනය (අනුවාදය) (in Sinhala). 2017.
Ancient Inscriptions in Ruhuna. 2021.
පුරාවිද්යාත්මක තැන්පතු සකස්වීමේ ක්රියාවලිය (අනුවාදය) (in Sinhala). 2021.
Silva, Nimal De; Somadeva, Raj (2010). The Galpaya Survey. Postgraduage Institute of Archaeology, [University of Kelaniya]. ISBN9789558522035. OCLC316737991.[22][23]
The archaeology of mountains : holocene adaptations of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. PGIAR occasional paper series. Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Colombo. 2014. ISBN9789559159841. OCLC933446769.[24][25]
Kaltota Survey - Phase 1. Memoirs of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology. Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Colombo. 2015. OCLC1014167181.[26][27]
ඉපැරණි ලෝක ශිෂ්ටාචාර (in Sinhala). National Institute of Education, Colombo. 2016.[28]
Editor
Galle Maritime Archaeology Museum and Information Centre. Colombo: Publication Unit, Central Cultural Fund. 2010. ISBN9789556132311. OCLC808597992.[29]
Proceedings of the National Archaeological Symposium, 2014. Department of Archaeology, Ministry of National Heritage, Colombo. 2014. ISSN2386-1290. OCLC896637060.[30]
"Giri Dīpa: The Earliest Buddhist Religious Landscapes in Sri Lanka?". A publication of commemorating International Vesak festival held in UNESCO Paris. 2015. pp. 83–104.[43]
"Cultural Dynamism Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Mid/Late Holocene Sri Lanka". The Resilience of Heritage Cultivating a Future of the Past Essays in Honour of Professor paul J.J. Sinclair. Uppsala University. 2018. pp. 225–252.[48]
"Andhra-Sri Lanka sub-system: Probably another way of thinking". Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology. 2. Indian Archaeological Society: 8–20. November 2, 2005.[53]
^ abSomadeva, Raj (2006). Urban origins in southern Sri Lanka. Uppsala universitet. Afrikansk och jämförande arkeologi, University of Kelaniya. Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology. Uppsala: African and Comparative Archaeology, Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. ISBN91-973212-5-7. OCLC416723069.