The archaeologist leading the excavation of the alleged Chemmani mass grave has told a Jaffna court that the site more closely resembles “formal burial practices” than a clandestine grave. This has been revealed in an interim report submitted to Jaffna Magistrate Court on 19 Oct.
The report, “Forensic Archaeological Excavation in Chemmani, Jaffna (2025/2026): A summary report on findings”, has been written by Raj Somadeva, a professor at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology at the University of Kelaniya, and Anusha Wanninayake.
Its findings run to 17 pages. It records a minimum of 574 individuals, 51 separate accumulations of disarticulated bones and 170 artefact entries. By its own preliminary estimate, 41 per cent of the dead were children and 22 per cent were infants.
According to the report the evidence is “insufficient” for a definitive conclusion. It nonetheless underlines one sentence in its summary:
“Nevertheless, the artefacts and associated contextual evidence suggest that the site exhibits greater similarities to contexts characterised by formal burial practices than to clandestine burial sites documented in other parts of the world.”
It goes on to suggest that if the burials “resulted from an epidemic or another form of natural catastrophe”, a scarcity of objects buried with the dead “would not necessarily be unexpected”. It does not name any epidemic or disaster in Jaffna that could account for hundreds of deaths.
The Tamil Guardian
has reported that Dr. Somadeva’s report pays particular attention to two skeletons, numbered 227 and 429, found in a seated position. It said seated burial is “documented in certain Hindu religious traditions”, linked to the practices of Samādhi and Jīva Samādhi in which a spiritually accomplished person may be buried sitting upright, while adding that the posture alone does not establish such a connection.