For decades now, Madurai, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the country has been flocked by tourists from all over the globe to witness its many marvels. Amid the centuries-old Meenakshi Amman temple, Tirumalai Nayakar Mahal and many other wonders, Keezhadi, a small village in the nearby Sivaganga district has gained a lot of attention in recent times. Excavation conducted in Keezhadi and the findings have redefined the archaeological perspective regarding Tamils around the world.
The first excavation in the country was carried out in Tamil Nadu by a German, Andreas Fedpr Jagor, in 1876 at Adichanallur. The first spot was identified when authorities were laying a railway line. However, none of the artefacts taken from the site in India have been displayed in Germany. Since then, numerous excavations were carried out in the country, especially in Tamil Nadu. As the geographical region has always been inhabited, several sites are believed to have been lost to time or the state has found it impossible to conduct excavations there.
The state archaeology department and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) found several burial sites in Tamil Nadu from Thandakudi to Amarthamangalam, but could not find the habitation sites connected to them.
To find a link to a habitation, the ASI chose a Vaigai river-based region for excavation as there were several references to the river in Tamil literature, especially Sangam literature.
The ASI team, led by superintending archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishnan, visited 500-600 localities along the Vaigai and found archaeological remains in 293 places. As Keezhadi had been an abandoned plot for centuries before it became a coconut grove a few decades ago, ASI was hopeful the site would be relatively undisturbed.
According to sources, in the 1970s, school students in the region alerted their teacher V Balasubramaniam that people had found potsherds, terracotta figurines, beads and a coin while digging a well. Later, Balasubramaniam alerted the authorities about the artefacts. Almost 40 years later, the ASI located Balasubramaniam, who had retired and settled in a village in Madurai. However, he too was unable to identify the spot where his students had found the artefacts back in the 70s.
Despite this setback, with the help of locals, Amarnath Ramakrishnan and his team managed to locate the site which was the starting point of the excavation in Keezhadi.
Abrupt halt
Ramakrishnan and the team found more than 5,500 artefacts in Phase I and II of the excavation, all of which belonged to the Sangam era and were the first-ever pieces of evidence for an urban civilisation in Tamil Nadu. However, Ramakrishnan was transferred from the project by the ASI, a move political parties termed ‘unusual’ as the team head is usually retained on the same project till a final output is generated. The ASI continued the third phase of excavation and announced in 2017 that there were no significant findings and decided to stop work. This abrupt halt soon became a political issue with politicians blaming the central government.
After much struggle, Tamil Nadu’s archaeology department resumed excavation in 2018 and reported that Keezhadi could be as old as 580 BCE, based on carbon dating of the artefacts unearthed in the fourth phase. The department led by R Sivanandham has continued excavations till date. Their work has confirmed that Keezhadi had been an industrial site, with cluster villages: Agaram and Manalur being habitation sites, and Kondhagai a burial site.
Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, a writer, told TNIE, “The ASI conducted three phases of excavations. Of this, Phase II proved Keezhadi was an industrial site and still has a large scope for further excavation. However, the ASI stopped at the end of Phase III, stating that nothing significant was found at the site. The same ASI had, in its previous phase, found more than 100 quadrants, trenches.”
The archaeology department continued excavation, while a 982-page report about the first two seasons (between 2014 and 2016) was submitted by Ramakrishnan to ASI Director-General V Vidyavathi in 2023. The report said the results of stratigraphy of cultural deposits found in the first two phases locate the archaeological site in the Sangam era, more precisely between eighth century BCE and third century BCE.
“Petitions were filed before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court seeking public release of the report pertaining to phases I and II. The union government gave an assurance to the court that the reports would be published in 2024. The court, in a later hearing, also directed the ASI to hand over the artefacts found in Phase I and II to the state government,” the MP said.
Prior to the Keezhadi excavation, Tamil Nadu was not considered to have been an urban centre during the Sangam age. Now, the findings prove that there was administration, literacy and state formation among people. “More importantly, no religious symbols were found amid the artefacts so far. This proved people lived before or beyond religion,” a department official noted.
Rs 18-crore museum
The state government then decided to set up a museum designed with the Chettinad-style of architecture, showcasing 15,000 Keezhadi artefacts. It was constructed at a cost of Rs 18.8 crore by the heritage wing of the public works department on two acres of land.
The museum features potsherds engraved with Sangam-age names in Tamil Brahmi script, spindle whorls, copper needles, microlithic tools, gold ornaments, an ivory comb, beads, miniature pots, urns, offering pots, terracotta figurines, ornaments, dice, gamesmen, punch-marked silver coins and others artefacts, including architectural remains such as brick structures with terracotta ring wells.
The foundation stone was laid for the museum by the then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in July 2020. It was inaugurated in March 2023 by Chief Minister M K Stalin whose government assumed office in May 2021.
The museum has become a beloved spot for both people living in India and abroad.
The archaeology department also launched a mobile application that utilises Augmented Reality (AR). Around 200 artefacts can be seen in AR. Moreover, QR codes in each museum block help visitors better understand the findings.
Further analysis
The Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, had said Keezhadi was a dry region. However, in the terracotta ring wells, fossils of diatoms such as Hantzschia, Luticola, Pinnularia and Nupela were found.
Scientific analysis of iron objects by VIT university have found the presence of the following minerals: 2.35% Aluminium, 79.80% Iron, 16.5% Silica, 1.61% Calcium, 0.61% Titanium, 0.60% Manganese, 2.28% Phosphorus, 0.88% Potassium, 0.73% Carbon, 0.045% Sulphur, 0.34% Barium, 0.06% Vanadium, 0.051% of Molybdenum, 0.031% Copper, 0.0745% Strontium and 0.018% of Nickel. The iron tools unearthed in Keezhadi have been made in accordance with technology mentioned in Sangam literature.
2,600-year-old culture
Six carbon samples collected by the archaeology department from the fourth season were sent to the Beta Analytic Lab, Florida, for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. The results dated all six samples between sixth century BCE and third century BCE. The sample collected at a depth of 353cm dates back to the end of sixth century BCE and another at the depth of 200cm goes back to early third century BCE.
In Tamil Nadu, nearly 110 cave inscriptions were documented from 32 sites and these inscriptions were deciphered and well documented in the book by ‘Padmasri’ Iravatham Mahadevan. Recovery of spindle whorls, pointed bone-tip tools used for pattern making, hanging stones of yarn, terracotta spheres, copper needle and earthen vessels to hold liquid, clearly exhibit the existence of a weaving industry.
The findings reflect ancient lifestyle, with agriculture being the primary occupation, supplemented by the iron industry, carpentry, pottery and weaving. The Keezhadi excavations yielded more than 600 hopscotch games. The game is popular in Madurai and other regions to this day, known as Pandi or Nondivilayattu. In the Tamil Nadu government’s latest budget, it was stated that an open-air museum would be constructed at the excavation site at a cost of Rs 17 crore.
Moreover, it was announced that excavations will be undertaken at a cost of Rs 5 crore in eight locations in 2024-25: Keezhadi in Sivaganga, Vembakottai in Virudhunagar, Thirumalapuram in Tenkasi, Porpanaikottai in Pudukkottai, Keelnamandi in Tiruvannamalai, Konkalnagar in Tiruppur, Marungur in Cuddalore and Chennanur in Krishnagiri.