State gives Rs 55L for Keezhadi work

The development follows the assurances made by the government on the floor of the House last year that it would not let the archaeological study at Keezhadi stop despite the Centre, which had carried out excavations in three phases, deciding to wrap up the research. 

The exhaustive excavations carried out at ‘Pallisanthai Thidal’ in Keezhadi had led to findings of a wide range of ancient artefacts pointing to a rich lettered civilisation that flourished in that region. The range of artefacts excavated includes brick construction, ring wells, terracotta dolls, jewellery made of rare stones, articles chiseled out of elephant tusk, ancient coins, pots engraved with Tamil Brahmi letters and several types of terracotta vessels, among others. 

Citing this, Commissioner of Archaeology (CoA) had written to the state to further the research which would delve deep into Vaigai civilisation besides reflecting on the social, economic, art and culture of ancient Tamils. The CoA also noted that the state unit of Archaeology had obtained the nod of Central Advisory Board of Archaeology (CABA) to carry out the excavation. 

The state’s Archaeology department, based on the findings, would take up the research to bring out every aspect of ancient Tamil culture through intensified excavations. As per the funds granted, the excavation works make up the most amounting to Rs 39.5 lakh, and the rest would be spent on procuring technical devices, carbon dating, digitising, stationery, camp expense and sundry expenses. The funds would be granted as advance from contingency funds and would be treated as ‘new instrument of service,’ and would be ratified by the Assembly at a later stage. 

CoA had been advised to send the requisite proposal to include the expenditure in the supplementary estimates 2017-2018. Keezhadi archeological site is one of the well excavated sites along the Vaigai river bed as more than 5,000 artefacts were unearthed. Radio carbon dating measures the age of Keezhadi as around 200 BC.