TN archaeological site yields high number of graffiti inscribed potsherds

Thulukarpatti: A sleepy village till two years back, this tiny hamlet in Tirunelveli district has now secured a special place on Tamil Nadu’s growing archaeological map with two phases of digging yielding over 3,000 antiquities and 4,500 graffiti-inscribed potsherds, the highest number from a single site so far in the state.

The two phases of archaeological excavations in 2022 and 2023 in Thulukarpatti on the banks of River Nambiyar is aimed at studying the cultural and ceramic sequence of other two near-by sites -- Adichanallur and Sivakalai -- where rice husks found in a burial date back to 3,200 years ago.

Sivakalai, also known as the Porunai River (Thamirabarani) civilization in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts of Tamil Nadu is much older, albeit for now, than the Keeladi settlement, which is believed to be 2,600 years old.

As many as 1,009 antiquities were unearthed in the first phase in Thulukarpatti, while the number went up to 2,030 in the second phase which concluded in September this year. A total of 4,550 graffiti-inscribed potsherds of different types – 2,050 in 2022 and 2,500 in 2023 – with Tamil-Brahmi inscribed on 10 of them were discovered from the site.

K Vasanthakumar, Director, Thulukarpatti Excavations, told DH that 35 trenches were dug in both phases with significant recoveries being a Tiger miniature and ring made of bronze, antiquities made of ivory, iron tools, terracotta figurines, beads made of carnelian, agate, quartz, shell, and glass, and silver punch marked coins.

“The findings from Thulukarpatti will help us in the research on Adichanallur and Sivakalai to arrive at a date for the two historically important sites,” Vasanthakumar said.

In the second season, archaeologists unearthed four potsherds with Tamil letters -- notable being the one with Puli (Tiger) written on it, and stumbled upon several pieces of evidence of an iron-based industry having thrived in Thulukarpatti.

“The presence of a huge number of graffiti-inscribed potsherds indicate that the habitants of Thulukarpatti were literate as they found identical signs from different archaeological sites suggesting a kind of communication. For instance, these graffiti-inscribed potsherds are similar to the ones that were found in Keeladi and Kodumanal,” Prof K Rajan, a renowned academic, told DH.

The hypothesis is there could be a connection between the two societies, but more evidence should be forthcoming to establish the link, Rajan, who had led several excavations in the past, said.

The graffiti found in Thulukarpatti will “greatly help” the Tamil Nadu government’s comparative study of the graffiti, and potsherds and the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), Rajan, who is also associated with the project, said.

The project aims at digitising all graffiti in Tamil Nadu consisting of more than 10,000 sherds that have so far been unearthed from archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu like Arikamedu, Karur, Uraiyur, Korkai, Alangulam, Adichanallur, Kodumanal, Porunthai, and Keeladi and place it in the public domain for researchers to decipher them.

While the Tamil-Brahmi (Damili script) has been deciphered, the graffiti marks are yet to be and the foremost question that the project will seek to address is whether graffiti marks were the “intermediatory script” between Indus and Brahmi scripts.

Rajan said another significance about Thulukarpatti is that the graffiti marks were found from the habitation site in Thulukarpatti, unlike in Adichanallur where they were dug from the burial site.

“This is yet another evidence to say that the society was literate, but we need more evidence to conclusively establish our claim. We need to decipher these scripts and doing that is the biggest challenge. We say this (signs) could have been a language because there are similarities between the graffiti found in Thulukarpatti and in other sites like Keeladi and Kodumanal,” Prof Rajan added.