Jasper, chert stones recovered from archaeological site in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Archaeologists have recovered jasper and chert stones - core materials used to manufacture ornaments and tools for hunting animals - from Vembakkottai in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu where the third phase of excavation is underway since June this year.

Nearly 10,000 objects have so far been unearthed from Vembakkottai ever since the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) began excavations in 2022. In the third phase, which is ongoing, over 2,400 artefacts have been recovered between June and November.

“Jasper and chert stones, raw materials that are used to manufacture ancient ornaments and tools used for hunting animals, have been found in the third phase of excavations. This evidence shows the design skills of ancient Tamils,” said Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, who also holds the additional charge of archaeology.

TNSDA officials told DH that the recovery of jasper and chert stones serve as further evidence to show continuous habitation from the microlithic age. They added that they have been unearthing flake and fluted core materials which are used to produce ornaments from 2022.

“Unearthing of such raw materials show that the archaeological site has been continuously under habitation from pre historic-medieval times; semi-precious stone beads like carnelian, agate, amethyst and crystal have also been unearthed from here,” a senior TNSDA official told DH.

In 2023, out of the 4,600 antiquities unearthed in Vembakottai, almost half were glass beads, while beads and figurines made of terracotta were 94 and 27 in number respectively. Likewise, 2,985 antiquities were unearthed from the site in 2022.

Glass beads of various colours, shell bangles, glass bangles, terracotta beads, spindle whorls, terracotta gamesmen, smoking pipes, terracotta pendant, toy objects, terracotta figurines, terracotta weighing units, iron objects and copper objects have also been found during the digging.

The potteries collected from Vembakottai are classified into five types as red ware, red slipped ware, black slipped ware, black and red ware, and brown slipped ware.

The archaeological excavations in Tamil Nadu have created a buzz in the past few years as they threw up surprises – artefacts unearthed in Keeladi near Madurai pushed the Sangam Era to 600 BCE from 300 BCE, rice husks found in a burial urn in Sivakalai was found to be 3,200 years old, and showed that Tamils were aware of iron technology in 2172 BCE - 4,200 years ago.

Carbon dating has pushed back the timeline of the Sangam Era by three hundred years from what it was thought to be – the ASI, which conducted the first two phases of excavation, also derived the period of the Sangam-era archaeological site to be between 8th century BCE to 3rd century CE.