NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, MAY 9
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday said iron implements unearthed from excavations at a small hamlet called Mayiladumparai have revealed that the Iron Age in Tamil Nadu dates back 4,200 years, potentially making it the oldest in India.
Previously, the Iron Age burial site of Adichanallur in southern Tamil Nadu had revealed an impressive collection of iron implements, currently housed in Chennai’s Egmore Museum, dated between 1000 BCE and 600 BCE.
இந்தியத் துணைக்கண்டத்தின் வரலாறு தெற்கிலிருந்து எழுதப்படும்!" என மாண்புமிகு முதலமைச்சர் @mkstalin அவர்கள் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
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— CMOTamilNadu (@CMOTamilnadu) May 9, 2022
Chief Minister MK Stalin, while addressing the Tamil Nadu Assembly Monday, said: “It has been found that the date of the iron artefacts ranges from 2172 BCE to 1615 BCE. The results have reiterated the fact that the Iron Age of Tamil Nadu dates back 4,200 years, which is the oldest in India.”
This finding has answered questions relating to the start of agricultural activity in Tamil Nadu, he added.
Among the other important findings is evidence that the late Neolithic phase in Tamil Nadu has been identified to have begun before 2200 BCE, based on a cultural deposit of 25 cm below the dated level.
Archaeologists also found that black and red ware pottery was introduced in the late Neolithic phase itself, rather than the widely held belief that this occurred in the Iron Age.
A source from the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) said the Mayiladumparai hamlet was the “earliest Iron Age site discovered thus far” in India.
Excavations that were carried out earlier at sites such as Malhar near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and Brahmagiri in north Karnataka, had pushed the date to only around the second millennium BCE, the source noted.
“The fact that the site in Tamil Nadu dates to 4,200 years ago gives us the opportunity to better study the connections with Indus Valley Civilisation,” the source said.
