Gold ornament unearthed at Vembakottai
The unearthed artefact weighed around 56 mg, site director Pon Baskar said on Thursday and added that a team from Chennai took stock of the work in progress.
MADURAI: A gold ornament was unearthed during the ongoing archaeological excavation at Vembakottai in Virudhunagar district.
The unearthed artefact weighed around 56 mg, site director Pon Baskar said on Thursday and added that a team from Chennai took stock of the work in progress.
As many as 3,480 antique artefacts have so far been found from 16 trenches in the second season of excavation in the historic human habitation mound.
The archaeological finds indicate that a shell bangle industry could have existed in the place.
Among the artefacts, three were gold, seven copper coins, and several ivory beads, dice, and terracotta figurines. The second season of excavation at Vembakottai commenced on April 16 and will go on till the end of September. More antiquities are expected to be unearthed as over a month is left for the completion of the excavation process.
Unlike the first excavation season, which was between March 16 and September 30 last year, which resulted in the discovery of 3,254 artefacts, Vembakottai witnessed much more artefacts being found. in all 3,480 artefacts have been unearthed in the current excavation.
“According to C Santhalingam, founder of Pandya Nadu Centre for Historical Research, ancient people, who followed megalithic tradition, could have lived at Vembakottai, the site was identified twenty years ago as being of archaeological significance,” he said.
