After the 21-day lockdown in view of Covid19 put the brakes on the sixth phase of Keeladi excavation, archaeologists are now busy documenting the finds from the previous phase.
A senior official from the excavation team told The Hindu that the team was staying put at Keeladi and preparing the documentation for the fifth phase which was completed last year. While documentation was a continuous process during excavations, the team now has more time on hands due to the lockdown, he said.
The excavation team had employed around 60 labourers from around the excavation site and has a team of archaeologists and an expert. There are around 15 research assistants who are now given training on documentation of antiquities and artefacts.
“The number of antiquities in the fifth phase was less, but we got more than 50,000 potteries. We have to sort them out, find out which period these belong to, which ones to photograph, do pottery hand-drawings, and do the drawings on AutoCAD as well,” the official said.
According to officials, the research assistants are on a rotational basis divided into groups, given training on how to undertake various work required for documentation which they might not do when they are just excavating.
“This is also a new experience for them. We are training them how to sort out pottery, then one group will choose which ones to photograph, which ones go into the reserve collection and so forth. Then, pottery drawings need to be done by hand, computer drawings as well, which can be used when we publish the book,” the official said.
Publishing a full report takes about an year or two. “Now with the lockdown, we can speed up the process,” the official said adding that the current phase of the excavations will begin again once the lockdown ends and will proceed for another five months till September.
