Two months after a team from the State Department of Archaeology began excavation on the Noyyal river bed at Kodumanal village in Chennimalai Union where iron smelting units were unearthed recently in large numbers, the team began excavation work at three megalithic burial sites here on Wednesday.
A team led by J. Ranjith, Archaeology Officer and Project Director for the Kodumanal excavation, K. Suresh, Archeological Officer, began excavations on February 26 and had so far dug 28 quadrants and unearthed iron smelting units and found furnaces and other processing materials.
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The team identified over 10 cairn-circle mounds, all located about 500 metres from the river, and excavation works began at three mounds. A team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had previously carried out excavation at the burials here. Mr. Ranjith told The Hindu that, “Only secondary burials were unearthed in all the previous excavations at Kodumanal and hence the focus is on identifying primary burials which would throw more light on the earlier human settlements”.
During the excavation last year, the team opened 27 burials that revealed three tyres of burials, cairn circle, urn burial and urn burial with and without cists. “Burial methods and their size revealed that multi-ethnic groups lived in the area”, he added.
Ceremonial pots along with beads and graffiti were found inside the burials that were sent for carbon-dating. Earlier excavations also revealed that the site served as a trade-cum-industrial centre dating it to over 2,500 years. The grave usually contains bones, pots and bowls filled with grains and other materials used by the deceased as people believed in a new life after death.
