THOOTHUKUDI: Tamil Nadu Archeology Department (TNAD) is likely to launch an excavation in Adichanallur and Sivagalai by the end of January. A group of experts from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and TNAD inspected the archaeological sites on December 28 last year.
The State government has allocated Rs 2 crore for the excavation at Keezhadi, Kodumanal, Sivagalai and Adichanallur. Sivagalai is the new site to be excavated among the four places.
The archaeology departments inspected the sites following a case filed by writer Kamarasu of Muthalankurichi at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
According to sources, Sivagalai archaeological site has evidences of human settlements. There are 20 foot-high mounds of elevation, which has remains of ashes, ceramics and cultural deposits. Over a century ago, Alexander Rea of ASI (British India) surveyed Adichanallur between 1899-1902.
It can be noted that Sivagalai is located in the middle of Korkai, the erstwhile seaport of Pandyan kingdom and in Adichanallur, where ASI conducted an excavation to unearth over 169 urns in 2004.
Situated on the banks of Thamiraparani river, Sivagalai is abound to Eral taluk in Thoothukudi district and seven kilometres away from both Adichanallur and Korkai. Hundreds of artefacts have been collected from Sivagalai over the past few years by A Manickam, a history teacher at Sri Kumaragurubarar Swamigal Higher Secondary School in Srivaikuntam.
The artefacts, including urns, potsherds, red and black pots, earthenwares, iron pieces, bones, hero stones, stone inscriptions and vattezhuthukal are exhibited in the school where Manickam works.
The archaeological site in Sivagalai has cup marks known as prehistoric arts, pecked on the rock surfaces. There are tracks of iron ore, and remains of charcoal, peat and burnt ashes, supposedly for calcinations of iron ore, spread across the site.
The TNAD told the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that the artefacts collected from Sivagalai supposedly belongs to Megalithic period. However, Manickam said, "I believe the artefacts found in Sivagalai might belong to Mesolithic age that is 10,000 years ago, as micro tools have been unearthed from the site."
Speaking to TNIE, Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Department of Archaeology T Udhayachandran said that the ASI approved the excavation project at Sivagalai. The works would begin by the end of January. But dates have not been fixed yet. The State-sanctioned Rs 2 crore for the excavation works, which would be shared among the four sites, he added.