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Delgahawatthage Raj Kumar Somadeva Delgahawatta (born 31 October 1960) is a Senior Professor in Archaeology at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka, and a Senior Fellow of the Sri Lanka Council of Archaeologists. He has received the Charles Wallace Research Fellowship from the Institute of Archeology at University College London in 2005.

Early life
Delgahawatthage Raj Kumar Somadeva was born on 31 October 1960 at Wellawaya, Sri Lanka. He is the eldest among a family of six children.

Since his father was a Government Servant, he had to move around the country a lot, and 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 Holycross College and eventually Kalutara Vidyalaya.

Higher education
He received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Archaeology in 1986, and in 1994 earned his Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in the same discipline, both from the University of Kelaniya. In 2006 he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Archaeology from the Department of Archaeology & Ancient History at Uppsala University in Sweden.

He is a student of the Late Professor Emeritus Senake Bandaranayake, and Professor Emeritus Paul Sinclair at the Uppsala University.

Career
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.

In 2013, he was appointed as a member of the National Research Council of Sri Lanka.

He also extended his capacity to revise the history teaching syllabuses in schools and has written several chapters to the current history textbooks.

, he serves as a Senior Professor in archaeology at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya.

In 2022, he was appointed as a member of the advisory committee to the Ministry of Tourism in Sri Lanka.

Currently, he is serving as a consultant to several projects funded by the UNDP.

Research
Raj Somadeva's main field of study is ancient urbanization in Sri Lanka. He spent six years from 1999 to 2005 in the south and southeastern 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 did several macro-scale reconnaissance surveys and 9 excavations in the Lower Kirindi Oya basin. The results of the fieldwork were presented to his Doctoral Degree at Uppsala University as a thesis titled The Origins of Urbanism in Southern Sri Lanka.

After completing his Ph.D., 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.

Somadeva won a Competitive Research Grant from the National Science Foundation in 2017 and 2019 for his research on Environmental adaptations of the Holocene hunter-gatherers in Sri Lanka.

He has published 75 research papers both locally and internationally in addition to his 17 books.

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.

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.

Articles

 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka
 * 1) Rock Paintings & Engraving in Sri Lanka

Uncategorized

 * 1) The Ancient Sea-port at Kirinda in Ruhuna
 * 2) Advanced Hunter-Gatherers or Conservative Farmers: a note on the excavation of earthenware burial canoes at the village Ranchamadama in Sabaragamuva Province, Sri Lanka.
 * 3) Rise of Social Complexity in Southern Sri Lanka: an archaeological analysis
 * 4) Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean World; a historical appraisal
 * 5) Seeking for a Prehistoric Language in Sri Lanka: an assessment on archaeological perspectives
 * 6) An ancient Ritual Space Excavation in Veherabindayaya of Galpaya in Rathnapura District: A Note
 * 7) අළුත් සහල් මංගල්‍යය කෙටි සටහනක්
 * 8) ප‍්‍රාග්ඉතිහාසය සමාජගත වීම
 * 9) වෘත්තීයභාවය සහ ස්වභාෂාව: පුරාවිද්‍යාව එක් නිදසුනක් ලෙස
 * 10) ශ‍්‍රී දළදා වහන්සේ ඓතිහාසික සමාජ වියමනක් ලෙස දැකීම: කෙටි හැඳින්වීමක්
 * 11) පොළොන්නරුව: එහි ප‍්‍රභවයේ බහිර්ජන්‍ය සාධක පිළිබඳ විමර්ශනයක්
 * 12) රුහුණේ අනන්‍යතාව සහ සම්ප‍්‍රදාය
 * 13) ඉතිහාසය සහ පුරාවිද්‍යාව අතර ක්ෂිතිජයක්: මහාචාර්ය සුදර්ශන සෙනෙවිරත්නගේ ශාස්ත‍්‍රීය දායකත්වය පිළිබඳ ඇගැයිමක්
 * 14) කලුතර දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ ඉතා පැරණි සෙල්ලිපි
 * 15) "ගැමි හඬ" සංවිධානය
 * 16) අප කාටත් වුවමනා අතීතය වර්තමාන අත්දැකීමක
 * 17) ගාලු දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ පිහිටි පැරණි බෞද්ධ විහාරාරාම
 * 18) අනුරාධපුර නගරය බිහිවීම
 * 19) අතීතයේ වර්තමානය සහ වර්තමාන අතීතය, සාහිත්‍යයේ සමාජ උත්ප‍්‍රාසය
 * 20) ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආදි යුගයට අයත් පාරලෞකික අදහස්
 * 21) පුරාණ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ විද්‍යාව සහ තාක්ෂණය පිළිබඳ කෙටිසටහනක්
 * 22) බාර්ලිවාදය, විද්‍යාව, විද්‍යාවේ දර්ශනය සහ ස්වාත්මිකපුරාවිද්‍යාව
 * 23) අතීත සංජානනය සහ ප‍්‍රතිනිර්මානාත්මක සංකල්පනය
 * 24) ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අතීතය: අදහස් පිළිබඳ අදහසක්
 * 25) දේශීය පර්වත චිත‍්‍ර සහ ආලේඛ්‍යරූප සම්ප‍්‍රදාය
 * 1) දේශීය පර්වත චිත‍්‍ර සහ ආලේඛ්‍යරූප සම්ප‍්‍රදාය