Editorial: Indiana Jones of Keezhadi

NEW DELHI: In a significant study that transforms our perception of the antiquity of iron usage in the Indian subcontinent, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin released a report last month which said that the introduction of iron in modern-day Tamil Nadu went back to the first quarter of the 4th millennium BCE. Samples pertaining to this finding were picked up between 2019 and 2022, by the Tamil Nadu State Archaeological Department from Sivagalai, an Iron Age rehabilitation cum burial site, located in the Thamirabarani river valley in Thoothukudi district.

The excavations were conducted at eight locations, including five habitation mounds and three burial mounds. The findings were confirmed after the specimens of the relics obtained at the archaeological sites were sent for analysis to a reputed research centre in Pune, and a renowned international research facility in Florida. According to experts, these findings should be viewed as a turning point not only for the history of Tamil Nadu, but also for the entire subcontinent. The discovery at Sivagalai, which has pushed the Iron Age back to 5,000 years ago, potentially making it the oldest in the world, has set the ball rolling for a slew of ambitious projects undertaken by the state Archaeological Department.

One might recall that the CM had recently announced a cash prize of $1 million for deciphering the Indus script, a development that has attracted global attention. As of now, the state has the proud distinction of conducting the highest number of excavations across the country as historians are eager to unearth threads of the ancient Tamils' trade and cultural links. As part of this endeavour, excavations are being conducted across the state, including Vembakottai (Microlithic era), Sennanur (Neolithic), Kilnamandi, Thirumalapuram (Iron Age), as well as Keezhadi, Marungur, Porpanaikottai, Kongal Nagaram (Sangam Age). Apart from training its focus on epigraphy, the state department is also embarking on restoration and conservation of heritage sites.

Beyond Tamil Nadu, an excavation of a village in Karnataka which is home to Emperor Ashoka’s edict; the excavation of Venki, the Eastern Chalukya capital in AP that has links to the Chola empire, digs in the ancient Chera port of Pattanam in Kerala, an underwater recce of the Pandya port city of Korkai, as well as exploration of sites in southeast Asia, aimed at recording the exploits of Tamil kings during their war expeditions, have also been planned by the department. What has also emerged as an area of interest for academicians is the government’s push for inculcating a scientific and historical bent of mind among the youth in Tamil Nadu. Which explains the war footing roll-out of museums in various historically diverse regions such as Keezhadi, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Erode.

Historians and archaeologists are now looking at how the multi-regional manifestation of the early iron in the subcontinent can be probed further, with an aim to comprehend the origin of these ancient technologies as well as their impact on the society and people of that era.That the know-how of iron technology did not come from the West to India is common knowledge, but now the bigger task lying ahead of India’s academic stalwarts is figuring out how iron went from the east to the rest of the world. Academic syllabi will now have to be reconfigured to factor in aspects of the Iron Age civilisation of South India, through the dissemination of research in metallurgy, pyrotechnology, elemental composition, furnace engineering and more.