Chennai

“The script found in Keezhadi archaeological excavation site cannot be discarded as mere scribblings. Like the scripts found in IVC, the scripts discovered in Keezhadi too could not be deciphered. When read both the scripts are incomplete”, mentioned the report, released by State Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture, Ma Foi K Pandiarajan.

Ever since Keezhadi excavation commenced in 2015 there were intellectual discourses on whether Keezhadi has links with the IVC. Though initially several scholars refused to accept the links, the recent discovery of artefacts and their study has further pushed back the Sangam era by another 300 years.

“Six artefacts unearthed in Keezhadi in 2018 were sent to Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory in USA and the report suggests that the period of the artefacts would be between sixth century BCE and first century BCE. This proves that the era of Keezhadi has commenced before 2,600 years and Tamil society was literate with a definite script”, read the report.

As far as urbanisation is concerned, the report suggests that the site was an urbanised site. “The urbanisation has commenced at around 6th century BCE and this is on a par with Northern India where urbanisation commenced at a similar period”, stated the report.

The report also contains many new discoveries which has direct links with IVC like the artefacts discovered from the excavation site suggests that people of the area reared cattle. The bones unearthed from the site proves that people who lived there used humped bulls. The humped bulls were also found in IVC and the proof is from Harappa where a seal of humped Zebu bull was discovered.

Another similarity between Keezhadi and IVC is the pottery. According to the report, the predominant type of pottery discovered in the site is Black and Red Ware pottery and the same pottery was the dominant pottery found in IVC sites. The Black and Red Ware pottery found in IVC was called ‘Ochre Coloured Pottery’.

The report also suggests that the excavations proves that the construction was similar to that of IVC. Burnt bricks were used in Keezhadi with standard dimensions across the buildings discovered. The dimensions of bricks used in the site is 1:4:6. Similarly, in IVC only burnt bricks were used and they too came with the standard dimension of 1:2:4.

The materials used by the people of Keezhadi were also similar to the people of later IVC period. “Agate and carnelian beads which were used by people of Gujarat and Maharastra were also unearthed in Keezhadi”, stated the report.

Iravatham Mahadevan, an epigraphist who was an expert in IVC, had already stated that IVC was a Dravidian culture and the language used in IVC was a Dravidian language.

The report now proves the words of Iravatham Mahadevan right and suggests that people of IVC might have migrated to south and eastern part of India, which many historians have already opined.

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