The historical archaeology of Katuwana, a Dutch East India Company fort in Sri Lanka

Abstract

During the 17th and 18th centuries about 50 forts were built by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the coastal area of Sri Lanka. These were not isolated structures but formed part of an extensive interlocking military system in which each element occupied a strategic site and had its own specific function. In the land between the coastal forts and the frontier outposts, the VOC placed small guardposts and stockades. Katuwana fort was the major frontier post of the VOC in southern Sri Lanka, built c. 1680.

In 2000 the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology (PGIAR) of the University of Kelaniya, in co-operation with the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre (AAC) of the University of Amsterdam, conducted a test excavation at Katuwana fort. Despite past damage and continuing erosion, the site yielded much information about its 17th- and 18th-century buildings and inhabitants. The fort is a good example of an outpost where Dutch settlers interacted with native people; it was inhabited not only by Europeans, but also by soldiers of Sri Lankan and Eurasian descent. Study of the material culture of Katuwana should provide the basis for further studies of the relations between natives and newcomers in 17th- and 18th-century colonial Ceylon.