VIRUDHUNAGAR: Digging a piece of land for setting up a fish farm led to the discovery of an urn burial site, dating back to the megalithic period, at the Chinnakollappatti village near Sattur a few days ago. This site is reportedly 500 metres away from a habitation site that was spotted a few weeks ago.
In total, five burial urns and around two dozens of artefacts were found at the sites. The discovery was made by assistant professor of Sri S Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College’s Zoology department, B Ravichandran, an archaeologist and a member of the Thamizhaga Tholliyal Kazhagam, and his associate S Nattar, a librarian of the same college.
However, most of the articles were broken. Ravichandran told Express that five huge burial urns in damaged condition and several mud articles were found.
“We were able to restructure around 23 of them. These include pots, utensils, plates, lids, a jar with a lid and a stand, and an iron scrapper. These articles must have been filled with things like grains and kept inside the urns as offerings to the dead.
The number of articles denotes the rank of the people, who were buried”, he said. These articles must be roughly 2,000 years old belonging to the megalithic period, he added. The mud articles unearthed are partly black and partly red in colour and have a glossy finish. “In order to make such earthenware, only a part of the pot needs to be exposed to the air.
This process helps to obtain the two colours. Further, to make it glossy, salt is sprinkled inside the heating stove during the process. Its evaporation makes the pot’s external surface glossy. This is a high-level technique of pottery making. The people, who resided here, had mastered that art,” he explained.
About the artefacts discovered at the habitation site, Ravichandran said that they found shell bangles, beads, hopscotch disks (vattachillu), earthenwares, and microliths.
“Microliths are an important find as they indicate habitation in the site since the microlithic period (i.e. 6,000 years ago),” he said.
All these findings pointed out that humans had settled at the banks of Vaippar, located less than a kilometre from here. Civilisation started thriving here ages ago, he added.