SIVAGANGA/VIRUDHUNAGAR: Digging will now be taken up on a land parcel spanning 22 cents near the previous phase excavation site in Keeladi as Chief Minister MK Stalin commenced the works from Chennai through videoconferencing on Thursday. District Collector P Madhusudhan Reddy, Superintendent of Police S Selvaraj, and others took part in the event from Keeladi.
Sources from the archaeology department in the district said the 22-cent plot was chosen for establishing a connection of structures that were traced during the fourth and sixth phases of excavations. "This season, we hope to unearth artefacts that date before the 6th century BCE," they added.
Meanwhile, in Virudhunagar, District Collector V P Jeyaseelan inaugurated the second phase of Vembakottai excavation on Thursday. In the first phase, as many as 3,254 artefacts and antiquities that are around 5,000 years old were unearthed from 16 trenches. Now, the second phase has begun at an estimated cost of `30 lakh. "We will make arrangements for students to visit the excavation site during the summer holidays," the collector said.
Auguring big revelations in the coming days, two glass beads were uncovered from the site during the inaugural event itself. Vembakottai Excavation Director Pon Baskar said, "Before commencing the excavation, we took up surface cleaning, and during this time itself, we found around 60 artefacts. Further, school and college students had shown great interest to view the antiquities we had unearthed during the first phase of excavation, when they were displayed at a book fair. So, for the benefit of students who would visit the present site, we are going to display some of those findings here too."
Considering the disrepair of roads leading to the excavation site, the district administration has decided to lay new roads for around 1 km. "A proposal to lay the road at `85 lakh has been prepared, and the work would be completed in a month," said Vembakottai BDO M Selvaraj.