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COLOMBO: Sri Lankan archaeologists have excavated 17 gold-plated Buddha statues from a Unesco World Heritage site believed to have been a monastery more than 2,000 years ago, an official said on Wednesday.
The rare find on Tuesday came during excavations of a rampart of the Abhayagiri temple complex in Anuradhapura, an ancient capital in the island’s centre north.
Project manager Thusitha Herath, of the government’s Central Cultural Fund, said this was the most significant discovery in the archaeologically protected area in more than three decades.
“We have found artefacts before, but this is the first time we have seen such a large number of statues,” Herath said from the excavation site, 210 kilometres (130 miles) north of Colombo. The 17 bronze statues plated in gold have 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.
