The ancient city of Anuradhapura, located in north-central Sri Lanka was capital of the Singhalese kingdom between the 4th century BCE and the 11th century CE. The slightly rolling landscape in the surrounding of the ancient city is structured by a linear rock outcrop line, which is located west of the city and the course of the River Malwathu Oya, flowing in northern direction and passing the city to the east. The architecture of Anuradhapura is characterized by a mixed material tradition utilizing parallel burnt bricks, timber and stone blocks as construction materials. Remains of numerous ancient buildings and monuments occur throughout the entire settlement. The majority of foundations, floor areas, pillars and entrance units of the buildings consist of stone blocks and provide evidence that rocks were the primary building material used for the constructions of buildings. In general the availability of natural resources plays a pivotal role by sustaining the foundation and successive development of the (ancient) settlements. This doctoral thesis is focusing on the availability and exploitation of bedrock as natural resource for construction material. The methodological approach applied encompasses a) a systematic survey of outcropping bedrocks in the surrounding of the ancient city of Anuradhapura in order to identify ancient quarries, b) a survey of remains of ancient building in the center of the ancient city to analyses the constructional contexts of different rock types, c) sampling of bedrock and building rocks to analyses whose petrographic, geochemical and mineralogical character and d) ethno-archaeological investigations to gain a better understanding of ancient stone quarrying techniques. Altogether 65 ancient quarry sites were identified in the settlement area and are classified into six categories. Most of the quarries are located along the rock outcrop line. All quarry locations were identified based on quarry marks, which appear as chiseled quarry holes on parent and quarried rocks. Separating stone blocks from rock exposures is done by drilling a line of holes with a chisel in the rock, putting wedges in the holes and then applying pressure on the line of holes with a hammer. This is the most the most prominent quarrying technique utilized in the surrounding of Anuradhapura. After the exploitation of stone blocks, numerous ancient quarry areas were integrated into the built environment as basins for water storage, rock shelters as living space or as leveled platforms on top of large boulders, which served as foundation to erect sacred buildings. A comparison of petrographic, mineralogical and chemical characteristics of analyzed bedrock samples show, that ancient architects preferred the usage bedrock from local sources as a construction material for ordinary purposes. Marble was exclusively used for ornamentation in highly sacred Buddhist constructions during the later periods of Anuradhapura (after 6th century CE). As marble does not occur in the study area, all marble rocks in Anuradhapura, represents imports. It is concluded, that its utilization coincides with the development of the capital as a place of centralized political and religious power. In contrast, the availability of gneissic bedrock, naturally accessible in outcrops, was an important factor which supported the development of Anuradhapura as capital of the first kingdom in Sri Lanka.