Unknown age - Lanka
Ruhuna - Terracotta Svastika seal

SPECIFICATIONS Material Terracotta Type Molded Diameter 55. mm Height 58. mm Weight 122 gms Shape Trunk

Side : Seal in the shape of a "trunk" with a large circular base becoming gradually narrow at top
Bottom : circular base with a Svastika revolving right at center and Five Brahmi characters along periphery with feet to a raised 9 mm border. When the seal is struck this border will surround the central raised seal with Svastika revolving left.

Brahmi text on ancient coins are written with feet of the characters towards the edge of the coin in anti-clockwise direction. Rotation direction is opposite on a seal die. Starting from slightly left of top reading clockwise, I recognize the Brahmi characters la ba ma a ta. The start is unknown, but this sequence in Sinhala reads Cheapest Hand. Ancient Marketing :-)

Four large terracotta seals are listed D.1-D.4 under Inscribed Sealings in the 1999 catalog by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe titled Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited . The seal above was obtained directly from the same collector who provided most of the items for that book. Need to check if overall shape of seal handle is the same.

If anyone has information on the age of items like it please let me know details about it.

I need to photograph these larger items but for now the Terracotta seal was scanned at 100dpi and displayed at 50dpi. It was obtained in 2001 December from Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, Lanka.