question_answer

Archaeologists have been busy digging out the treasures buried in Keeladi, a village in Sivaganga district of X, and historians and anthropologists are now Interpreting the rich finds from the Sangam era.

This is the fifth phase of excavations, and it has revealed many more artefacts and engineering designs.

The fourth phase had established that the antiquities unearthed here could date from the 6th century BCE to the 1st century CE.

This is the first time that such a large-scale excavation on a '‘habitational mount'’ has been carried out in Tamil Nadu.

Some were all red, but many were black on one side and red on the other ‘indicating Black and Red ware - a type of pottery in vogue more than 2,500 years ago, during the Sangam age. These small potsherds were the first outwards signs that gave a clue that something serious existed beneath the surface.

The more than 5,000 antiquities suggest that this was on a different scale from the small tools, or burial mounds discovered until then. Keeladi was distinctive because it had far more ‘'structures'’ than other similar sites.

Judging by the impressive water management infrastructure, their skilled craftsmanship, as evidenced by the tiny intricate boar seal (just about a centimetre in width), the thousands of black-and-red potsherds —many with graffiti on them, this appears to have been a sophisticated society.

Among the findings is an orange carnelian bead engraved with the image of a wild boar. Carnelian stones, from the quartz family, are not found in Tamil Nadu, but in the north-western parts of India. The engraved bead could date back 2,000 years. It hinted at the possibility of an ancient north-south trade link.

Keeladi has yielded gold jewellery, hundreds of finely crafted beads of terracotta, glass and carnelian, and game pieces. The ancient Keeladians were obviously generating enough ‘'surplus'’, to afford to the ‘extras’: precious adornment, industry and leisure/fun.

One piece of sculpture, an old woman’'s head shows loving attention to a somewhat incongruous detail. What makes the sculpture so special are the sagging cheeks of the woman, beautifully and realistically rendered.

Keeladi also appears to have been an egalitarian society. One indication of this is the widespread presence of graffiti. Graffiti such as this is likely by commoners marking their property suggesting a highly literate population as opposed to rock cut edicts ordered by rulers.

Water-management infrastructure predominated in the finds. Until now, at least three kinds of channels have been discovered: one was a shallow, broad channel about half a metre across, a few inches in height and about 6 metres thus far excavated in length lined with shards of broken terracotta roof tiles.

Nearby there was a beautifully crafted terracotta pipe which appeared to feed into a strategically placed pot, which in turn was placed on top of another pot.

The last type of channel was a closed channel, gently curved, with the curved portion buttressed with additional support, was this because the liquid was pressurised. This channel ran close to a small, square, brick-lined tank at the site.

The different types of channels allude to different qualities of water being transported, the flat, broad, open channel could have been used to carry fresh water perhaps, where smell was not a concern. One possibility is that the closed channels were used to carry away smellier liquids sewage or effluent, maybe.

During an earlier dig in Keeladi, archaeologists unearthed four parallel water channels which implied the movement of a lot of water far more than a single household could use. And the sheer numbers of channels discovered now there were several crisscrossing a 300 sq mtr stretch, suggest that this was an intense water-using site. The Keeladians were moving water strategically from place to place for some function.

What was Sangam era famous for?

A) Literature

B) Temples

C) Terra-cotta

D) Sculpture