CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday, based on the results of scientific dating of archaeological samples, declared that iron was used in the present Tamil-speaking region even in the mid third to fourth millennia, thereby pushing the Iron Age period back by around two millennia. The results establish that iron was used in the region over 5,300 years ago, he said.
Releasing the report titled, ‘Antiquity of Iron: Recent Radiometric Dates from Tamil Nadu’ in Chennai, Stalin said he was making the remarkable anthropological announcement, not only to India but to the whole world, that the “Iron Age began on Tamil soil”.
The results were based on samples sent from various archaeological sites including Sivagalai in Thoothukudi district, Adichanallur in Tirunelveli district, Mayiladumparai in Krishnagiri district to three renowned laboratories — Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow; Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; and Beta Analytic Lab, Florida, USA.
While the samples were sent to Indian labs for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) analysis, the samples from the same sites were sent for radiometric analysis to the Beta Analytic in Florida. Similar results have been received from all the three labs.
Stalin said the State’s Archaeology Department has established through chronometric dating that smelting technology to extract iron from ore was first introduced in the Tamil landscape. “This is a pride for the Tamil race, Tamil Nadu and the Tamil landscape. We can proudly say this is a great gift from the Tamil landscape to the humankind,” the CM said.
“The history of the Indian subcontinent can no longer overlook Tamil Nadu. It must in fact begin here. What was written in our ancient literature is now becoming scientifically proven history, thanks to the meticulous efforts of our Dravidian model government,” the CM later said in a post on X.
He expressed hope that the future excavations in the archaeological sites where iron ore is available and the metallurgical analysis of iron objects found in the already excavated sites will strengthen the current discoveries.
Speaking on the occasion, Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University, said, “As an Indian and an octogenarian archaeologist of the country, I feel almost emotional when I hold a copy of this book. The State Archaeology Department of Tamil Nadu has discovered for the first time in the world that the smelted iron can go back to the middle of the third millennium BC. The finding is of significance not only to India but to the whole world,” Chakrabarti said.
He recalled he was taught that the antiquity of the Iron Age in India did not go beyond the 6th Century BC. “Now it has gone from 6th century BC to about 2500 BC. I am very proud to think that this transformation happened when I am alive,” he said.
Dr Rakesh Tiwari, former Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, termed this a “historic event”, stating that it was Professor Chakrabarti who predicted that the iron technology originated from India at a time when many scholars believed that it came to India from the west.
Stating that he wanted to congratulate archaeologists from different agencies, mostly from Tamil Nadu, for this feat, he added, “This type of support, a methodical approach to an archaeological problem is rare and is a model for research in other parts of the country”.
In a note in the book released on Thursday, compiled by archaeologists K Rajan and R Sivanantham, Dr Tiwari said that the findings were a turning point in Indian archaeology and they showed that “an independent civilisation flourished in Tamil Nadu during the third millennium BCE in a far distant area from the contemporary Harappan civilisation of northwestern South Asia”.
CM Stalin lauded Minister for Finance and Archaeology Thangam Thennarasu and Finance Secretary and Commissioner of Archaeology T Udhayachandran and all other archaeologists and officials for their efforts. The CM also laid the foundation for the Keeladi open museum and a museum at Gangaikonda Cholapuram besides launching the web portal for Keeladi excavations at the event.