Both the present day Wanniya-laeto and Sri Lankan paleo-archaeologists claim the Wanniya-laeto as the Indigenous population of Sri Lanka, in the sense of being descendants of the earliest known human settlers of the island, dating the ancestors from at least the Neolithic period and possibly further back to the Mesolithic Balangoda cultures. Descriptions of their foodways give both a look back to the basic food elements and cooking practices present in Sri Lankan cuisine today.