The Archaeological Survey of India has undertaken an extensive excavation at Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu.
- In 1903-04 British archaeologist Alexander Rea unearthed a treasure of over 9,000 objects in Adichanallur.
- Nearly 100 years later in 2004 and 2005 archaeologists found a lot of iron objects, and a few copper objects but no bronze or gold, as they were more focused on habitations.
- In October 2021 using the Geological Survey of India (GSI) data and clues discovered from Rea’s report, the ASI team zeroed in on the trenches to be dug.
- The site has about seven possible burials of the heads of important persons of the clans that existed between 500 to 1,000 BCE.
- The recent excavations have yielded a wealth of materials, including gold, metals and human remains.
- This will help archaeologists reconstruct the framework of this ancient civilisation.
- Various Materials unearthed include
- burial urns
- 3000 years old Human skull
- Bronze artefacts
- Headgear
- Spear
- Arrowheads
- Dog toy
- Paddy
- Gold diadem – In the first trench, they found objects in bronze and gold similar to the 14 gold diadems discovered by Alexander Rea.
- Gold was an inland source from the region located north of the present northern borders of Tamil Nadu.
- Several gold workings are reported from the neighbourhood of the Hutti gold mines, the present Raichur district of Karnataka.
- Some of them have been dated to about 3,000 years ago.
- Sanganakallu, a Neolithic and Megalithic site near Ballari in Karnataka, has yielded gold foils but in small quantities and not from a burial context like at Adichanallur.
- The granulite terrain in Tamil Nadu is also reported to yield gold.
- From 1,000 BCE onwards since the beginning of the megalithic or Iron Age in south India, gold was a traded commodity.
- So it is not surprising that it has been found in Adichanallur.
- However, how long ago this gold was exploited is not known.
- Adichanallur is the first archaeological site in Tamil Nadu where gold was excavated.
- Not far from the Adichanallur lies Korkai the ancient port city of the Pandya kings.
- Archaeologists doubt if Adichanallur was a satellite village of Korkai port city.
- Maritime trade – Associated materials yielded vital clues for maritime trade activities at the southern rim of the Indian Ocean.
- Recoveries of many Tamil cultural artefacts in Vietnam, Cambodia and other South East and Far East Asian countries right from the Iron Age till the early 17th Century prove that there were aggressive free sea trade activities that flourished for a long time.
- Skeletal biological data from the skeletal remains however was insufficient to draw a genuine conclusion on the structure of the ancient community.
- But the results on pathological skeletal and dental abnormalities were amazing
- Such abnormalities had never been reported anywhere else so far.
Reference – The Hindu
