Keezhadi ( ta, கீழடி, kīḻaṭi) is a village near the village of Silaiman, on the border between

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

and

Sivagangai Sivaganga () is a city and headquarters of the Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Sivaganga is a rani velunachiyar kingdom of Tamil Nadu. It is an important city in this district for official and commercial purposes. Its ni ...

districts, in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India. The

Keezhadi excavation site Keezhadi (also as Keeladi) excavation site is a Sangam age settlement that is being excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India and the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology. This site is located 12 km southeast of Madurai in Ta ...

is located in this area: excavations carried out by the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...

(ASI) and the

Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) is the archaeology department of the Government of Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1961, the department is headed by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer with the designation Commissioner for Ar ...

(TNAD) have revealed a

Sangam era The Sangam period or age (, ), particularly referring to the third Sangam period, is the period of the history of ancient Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Sri Lanka (then known as Tamilakam) spanning from c. 6th century BCE to c. 3rd century CE. ...

settlement dated to the 6th century BCE by

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

. Claims that the results show that there was writing at that time have been challenged. It is not clear whether the potsherds containing inscriptions were found in the same archaeological layer as the 6th century samples, and University of Calcutta archaeologist Bishnupriya Basak said that "This unfortunately is not clear from the report and is very crucial", adding that the issues of "layer, period and absolute dates" needed clarity. Dravidian University archaeologist E. Harsha Vardhan said that a single report was not enough to "state scientifically that the

Tamil-Brahmi Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamizhi or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil.Richard Salomon (1998) ''Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscription ...

script belongs to the sixth century BC".

Excavations

An archaeological survey team under Archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna was first conducted in 2013 in the vicinity of the

Vaigai The Vaigai is a river in the Tamil Nadu state of southern India; it passes through the towns of Theni, Dindigul and Madurai. It originates in Varusanadu Hills, the Periyar Plateau of the Western Ghats range, and flows northeast through the ...

river from Theni district to

Ramanathapuram district Ramanathapuram District, also known as Ramnad District, is one of the 38 districts an administrative districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The old Ramanathapuram District consists of Present day Virudhunagar Virudhunagar is a c ...

where the river meets the sea. During the study, 293 sites, including Keezhadi, were identified to have archaeological residues. The first three phases of excavation at Keezhadi were conducted by the

, and they dropped it from doing further research. A public interest litigation was filed and following that the court ordered the regional depart to carry forward, following which the fourth and fifth phases were conducted by the

Carbon nanomaterials in Keeladi pottery

A team of researchers identified pottery shards at Keeladi that contain carbon nanomaterials, including single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

Notes and references

6. The New Indian Express (2 Sept 2020) https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2020/sep/02/findings-hint-keezhadi-was-continuously-inhabited-since-sixth-century-bce-2191353.html{{Madurai district Villages in Madurai district Tamil history Ancient Tamil Nadu Prehistoric India Archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu Tamilakam

Excavations

Carbon nanomaterials in Keeladi pottery

See also

Notes and references