India's Iron Age began in Tamil Nadu 5,300 years ago: Report

Chennai: Carbon dating of artefacts unearthed from recent archaeological excavations in Tamil Nadu have established that use of iron was widespread in the state and dates back to at least 5,300 years ago, making it the oldest date for Iron Age in India.

The above finding in a report named ‘Antiquity of Iron’ by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) released on Thursday further bolsters assertions of Iron Age experts in India that iron technology wasn’t imported from the West but was home-grown.

Releasing the 73-page report with proof of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates obtained from globally acclaimed laboratories and validated by 10 experts from across the country, Chief Minister M K Stalin declared that the history of the Indian subcontinent can “no longer overlook Tamil Nadu but must begin here”.

“Iron Age began from the Tamil Landscape. Not just to India, I declare to the world that iron began on Tamil soil. Iron ore technology was introduced in the Tamil land 5,300 years ago…people who mocked us saying literature can never become history are now fascinated with the way we have proved our history scientifically,” Stalin added.

Political significance of the findings

Stalin’s speech was carefully drafted to underscore that his government has begun to scientifically prove the technological sophistication of ancient Tamil civilisation which was often overlooked in the country’s mainstream history. The Chief Minister also suggested that further archaeological evidence is beginning to emerge for rich references made in expansive literature that ancient Tamils gifted to the world.

The report comes as a major political boost to Stalin, who has taken upon himself to prove scientifically that the Tamil civilization was the oldest in India and position himself as a staunch opponent of the BJP in the “Dravidian versus Aryan” narrative in Tamil Nadu.

Since taking over as Chief Minister in May 2021, Stalin has accorded top priority to the archaeology department by allotting record funds to the hitherto cash-strapped section and encouraging Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu and Finance Secretary T Udhayachandran – both hold archaeology as additional charge due to their avid interest in the subject – to keep pushing the boundaries in the field.

New hypothesis and dating of materials from Sivagalai

An urn excavated at Sivagalai

The findings also introduce a new hypothesis that the Copper Age of North India and the Iron Age of South India are probably contemporary. “Scientific dates may further clarify or strengthen the nature of the introduction of iron in India,” Prof K Rajan and R Sivananthan, authors of the report, said.

The findings are based on AMS and OSL dating of cultural deposits excavated from Adichanallur, Sivagalai, Mayiladumparai, Mangadu, Thelunganur, and Kilnamandi sites.

In total, five artefacts from Sivagalai in Thoothukudi district were taken for analysis with a potsherd going back to 685 BCE and a paddy sample collected from a burial urn to 1155 BCE. “The other three dates falling between 2953 BCE and 3345 BCE yielded iron objects. In this sense, the introduction of iron in Tamil Nadu goes back to the first quarter of the 4th millennium BCE,” the authors wrote in the report.

The OSL analysis provided dates of 2459 BCE, 2427 BCE, 2590 BCE and all the samples were collected from a single grave. “All three dates quite interestingly fall in the middle of the 3rdmillennium BCE displaying their consistency,” the report added.

The dates arrived at for Adichanallur are 1800-905 BCE, Kilnamandi (1769-1615 BCE), Mayiladumparai (2172 BCE), Mangadu (1604-1416 BCE), and Thelunganur (1435-1233 BCE). Mayiladumparai with a period of 2172 BCE (4,200 years ago) arrived in 2022 was so far the earliest date for iron technology in India. Before that, it was dated back to around 1500-2000 BCE, following the Indus Valley Civilization (3300 BCE–1300 BCE).

“The metallurgical analysis of iron objects from the excavated sites and future excavations in iron ore-bearing zones may further consolidate or strengthen these findings (first quarter for 4th Millennium BCE). Let us hope and wait for future evidence,” the authors added.

Validated by external experts

In an effort to ensure external validation of the hypothesis, the TNSDA flew down Prof Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, who was the first to challenge in the 1970s the theory that iron technology was imported to India, and former Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Dr Rakesh Tewari, who had excavated several Iron Age sites in north India, to Chennai.

Putting things in perspective, Dr Tewari told DH that plenty of research in north India had fixed the Iron Age period between 1500-2000 BCE and much evidence to arrive at the above date also came from states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. “But now it has taken a leap in 3rd millennium BCE and that’s why it is fascinating. I don’t think this is accidental. This is a very methodical research, and I have no doubt about the findings that the authors have arrived at based on AMS and OSL dating of cultural deposits,” he added.

Prof Chakrabarti said the findings were very important not just from the prism of India or Tamil Nadu, but globally. “The discovery is of such a great importance that it will take some more time before its implication sinks in. I need to process the fact that such a date has been thrown up. It is simply fascinating,” he told DH.

‘Need for further substantiation’

Five artefacts from Sivagalai in Thoothukudi district were taken for analysis.

Ravi Korisettar, Professor for Archaeology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, told DH that the hypothesis by the TNSDA is logical as far as the evidence goes and pitched the need for further substantiation as “one or two sites will not answer the question.“

Talking about Karnataka, the expert said Iron appears much later in time in the state than in Tamil Nadu, but archaeologists have not yet struck a site which can be dated.

“There are possibilities that the dates could be much earlier than what is known today. Even in Neolithic cultural sites that have been identified, we are yet to see the transition from hunting to gathering to early agriculture. These sites elude us,” Korisettar said.

The latest development is “certainly encouraging”, Korisettar said, and stressed the need to intensify research on archaeological findings, besides identifying more sites to excavate.

However, Dr Tewari said only digging won’t lead anywhere. “Archaeological problems of the country should be addressed more seriously. Only digging will not lead (anywhere), you will get something. But excavations have to be taken to a logical conclusion by validating the findings through scientific methodologies,” he added.

Korisettar also said different regions of the world have different cultural trajectories and that the concept of linear development – Stone Age to Copper Age to Iron Age – is not applicable everywhere.

“Bronze doesn’t pre-date or precede iron technology because the availability of resources mattered then. It depended on the ability of the human community to identify these resources in the area then develop a technology to extract iron from iron ore. This simply means one didn’t lead to another,” he said.

He said the Iron Age sites in Karnataka may be much younger than their counterparts in Tamil Nadu as these boundaries did not exist in the past and they were part of one single cultural area.

“Independent developments took place depending upon the capabilities of the people who are living in the proximity of the resources and also their ability to find an alternative raw material for making artifacts because they were already an agricultural society,” he added.

Earlier dates and fresh findings

The earlier excavations at Sivagalai, Adichanallur, Mayiladumparai, Kilnamandi and Mangadu indicated the date for the introduction of iron in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, falls between 2500 BCE and 3000 BCE.

“When cultural zones located north of Vindhyas experienced the Copper Age, the region south of Vindhyas might have entered into the Iron Age due to the limited availability of commercially exploitable copper ore,” the report added.

The report said samples collected from a stone circle entombing a pit burial with sarcophagus along with iron objects in Kilnamandi threw up the date of 1692 BCE, pushing the date of iron a century earlier than Mangadu. “Another significance of this AMS14C date (1692 BCE) is that a sarcophagus burial was dated for the first time in Tamil Nadu,” the authors wrote.

Prof Rajan and Sivananthan also wrote extensively about the three different types of iron furnaces unearthed from Kodumanal but one type used to make better-grade iron and steel have not been encountered in Tamil Nadu so far.

“Probably these furnaces also might have been used but we have not come across them in our investigations. Future exploration and excavation may throw some light on this aspect,” the report said.