பொன்னியின் செல்வன் மலர் கட்டுரைகள்: Antiquity of Human Occupation in the Kaviri Delta and the Pillayarpatti Excavations

[Subashini Tremmel]

பொன்னியின் செல்வன் வரலாற்றுப் பேரவையின் மலரில் வெளிவந்த சில கட்டுரைகளை மின்தமிழ் வாசகர்களின் தனி வாசிப்புக்காக இங்கு தொடர்ந்து வழங்க முயற்சிக்கிறேன். இந்தக் கட்டுரைத் தொகுப்பு நூலை அனுப்பி உதவிய  திரு.சந்திரசேகரன் அவர்களுக்கு நமது நன்றி.

-சுபா

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Antiquity of Human Occupation in the Kaviri Delta and the Pillayarpatti Excavations

 

Dr.V.Selvakumar

 

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About the Author:
V. Selvakumar is Lecturer in Archaeology at Tamil University. Holds a Ph.D from Deccan College Pune. He worked at The Centre for Heritage Studies, Tripunithura and has completed post-doctoral research on the prehistoric and early historic cultures of Madurai region, Tamil Nadu. He participated in the archaeological excavations at Kudikadu, Kodumanal, Arikamedu  Budihal and Nagapattinam. He supervised the
excavations at Taikkal-Kadakkarapally and Pattanam in Kerala and directed the excavations at Pillayarpatti Thanjavur . He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Southampton University.
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The Kaviri delta is considered as one of the important cultural regions of India for several reasons. Perhaps it has the highest concentration of historical Hindu temples and stone inscriptions. It was a major political region under the rule of the Cholas in the Medieval period. Much later it was a centre of Carnatic as well Tamil music. It was common for the Tamil historians of the early twentieth century to argue that the history of India should be written from Kaviri Valley, not just the Ganga Valley, in order to highlight the lack of focus on the history of Kaviri valley or other parts of Tamil Nadu in the national histories of India. Despite these arguments, the history of the Kaviri Delta before the 8th century has not been sufficiently researched. With a view to reconstruct the history of this region, the author initiated research on the Prehistory and Early History of this region from 2005-06. The researches are undertaken as part of the UGC funded Major Research Project titled “Landscape Archaeology of prehistoric Cultures of Southern Tamilnadu” and "The Sangam Age Settlements of the Kaviri Valley" sponsored by Central Institute of Classical Tamil.

 

Late Paleoliths from the Pillayarpatti Excavations

 

Archaeological excavations undertaken within the Tamil University campus within Pillayarpatti Village limit near Thanjavur in April 2009 have revealed evidence for Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures in stratified context for the first time in central and southern parts of Tamilnadu. The excavations were undertaken with a license from the Archaeological survey of India.

 

Palaeolithic Evidence

An important find from the excavation is the discovery of Palaeolithic artifacts in stratified context below the Mesolithic layers at a depth of 1.60 m from the surface. It is important to note that for the first time such stratigraphic evidence is found south of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The Palaeolithic cultural evidence could go beyond 10,000 years. Attempts are on to get scientific dates for the Palaeolithic period.

Mesolithic Evidence

 

The excavation revealed the evidence of microlith-using (tiny stone stools) Mesolithic people, who led a hunter-gatherer way of life about 10000-3000 years ago. These people used microlithic stone tools made of quartz, such as scrapers, triangles, points. They did not have the knowledge of pottery or metal implements. These people occupied the Vallam tableland. Interestingly what appears to be a narrow channel dug for water harvesting was found in the Mesolithic habitation context at the site. Further research is on to ascertain the nature of the channel.

 

Importance of excavation

 

This excavation clearly proves that the history of Thanjavur region, especially the Vallam region pushed back to the Palaeolithic times. These findings have to be seen in the light of Sri Lanka evidence of early human occupation, which extends back to several tens of thousands of years.  No such evidence has come from southern Tamilnadu, although the region around Chennai has produced extensive evidence for Palaeolithic occupation.

 

 

Fig.1. Satellite Map of Southern Tamil nadu with Sri Lanka

 

 

 

Fig. 2. Palaeoliths from Tamil University

 

Mesolithic Occupation

 

The surface surveys carried out as part of the project during the past one-year have revealed more than 150 microlithic and Iron Age Early Historic sites in Virudunagar, Ramanthapuram, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur,  Pudukkotai and Thuthukudy districts.

 

Sl. No.	Site Name	District	Finds
1	Thiruppoondi	Nagapattinam	Quartz microliths
2	Poykainallur	Nagapattinam	Quartz microliths
3	Vazhmangalam	Nagapattinam	Quartz microliths
4	Thirumalairayanpattinam	Karaikkal	Quartz microliths

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 1 Coastal Microlithic Sites of the Kaviri Valley

 

 

 

Fig. 3. Microliths from Punalkulam

 

 

The explorations by the author in the coastal part of the Kaviri delta have brought to light microlithic sites for the first time. The microlithic sites are found at Thirumalairayanpattinam, Vazhmangalam , Terkkupoigainallur and Thiruppoondi (Karaimedu) about 2.5 km from the Bay of Bengal Coast. These sites suggest that the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers occupied the coastal region (from ca. 10000 BP onwards) for exploiting the coastal resources including fish. It would not be a surprise if these people indeed experimented navigation activities with Kattaramam and even reached parts of Sri Lanka. Deraniyagala says that India was connected with Sri Lanka on and off up to 7000 years BP (Deraniyagala 1998). Therefore these groups could have walked to Sri Lanka!   

 

One needs to focus more on getting prehistoric organic remains in this region. 

 

 A hypothesis has been proposed that the groups that lived in the table-lands (Vallam in the south and Ariyalur in the north) adjacent to the Kaviri delta moved into the delta proper and coasts in the summer months (April-May), when resource availability would become difficult in the table-lands. They also could have continued to live in the delta in the months of June, July, September and October, when the freshwater from the untamed Kaviri would have offered subsistence resources. Perhaps these groups would have moved to the tablelands in the months of November, December, January and February, when the water availability would be better in the tablelands due to the Northeast monsoon and the delta proper would have witnessed severe floods. However, certain groups would have preferred to exploit the migrated birds of the marshy lands and the fish resources from January to March.

 

 

Neolithic Evidence

 

Neolithic evidence is lacking in the Kaviri Valley. The ASI excavations at Teralundur have reported some surviving Neolithic evidence in Late Neolithic (?)  or Early Iron Age context. The polished stone axe from Sembiyankantiyur (with markings similar to the Indus symbols) appears to be an Iron Age- Early Historic find, since the later excavations by the Tamil Nadu State have only produced megalithic burial remains. These polished axes should not

 be referred to as "Neolithic" celts, since they were used in the Iron Age or even later. They are even now worshipped in parts of North Arcot and Dharmapuri districts. Therefore they are in contemporary cultural context.  These polished axes were collected as curios by people and there were preserved and worshipped. Like even now people have both grinder and the traditional querns, Iron Age people also could have used the polished axes along with the iron objects.

 

1	Perungadambanur	Nagapattinam	Habitation and Burial	BRW,BW, CRW and Fine Rouletted ware (resembles NBPW)
2	Periya Orathur	Nagapatttinam	Habitation	BRW, BW, CRW
3	KOhur	Nagapatttinam	Habitation	BRW, BW, CRW
4	Kadamangudy	Nagapatttinam	Habitation	BRW, BW, CRW
5	Thiruppundi, Karaimedu	Nagapatttinam	Burial	Urn fragments
6	Kunniyur	Thiruvarur	Burial	Urn fragments
7	Paangal	Thiruvarur	Burial	Urn fragments
8	Mutturasapuram	Thiruvarur	Burial	BRW, BW, CRW, Urn fragments
9	ThirukkuvaLai*	Nagapatttinam	Burial	Urn fragments
10	Aavaarani* (Palliyanthoppu)	Nagapatttinam	Habitation	BRW, BW, CRW

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2 Recently discovered Iron Age Early Historic Sites

 

BRW, Black-and-Red ware; BW, Black Ware; CRW, Coarse Red Ware.

*Information given by S. Ramachandran, Revenue Inspector, Thirukkuvalai

 

Iron Age-Early Historic Finds

 

The Kaviri valley is very rich in Iron Age and Early Historic settlements. Numerous burial and habitation sites are found in this valley. Recent surveys as part of CICT Project produced many such sites. Interestingly the site of Perungadambanur produced a pottery produced in northern part of India. This indicates the active contacts this region had with northern part of India.

 

 

Fig. 4. Google Earth Map Showing the Excavated Site at Thanjavur

 

Discussions

 

The recent investigations reveal that Kaviri valley was a very attractive region for people in the Palaeolithic period onwards. The Palaeolithic evidence must have been buried by the river sediments in the delta. But from the Mesolithic period onwards a lot evidence for human occupation occurs. Several issues such as 'When did agriculture begin?,' 'Who introduced agriculture?' and 'What was the navigation system used in the Mesolithic period?' need to be answered through systematic future research. 

 

 

References

 Deraniyagala, S.U. 1998. Pre- and Protohistoric Settlement in Sri Lanka. The prehistory of Asia and Oceania 5 (16): 277-285.
A.B.A.C.O. s.r.l, Forli, Italy. Pages XIII U. I. S. P. P. Congress Proceedings- Forli, 8 – 14 September 1996.

Selvakumar, V. 2008 "Archaeological  Research In Thanjavur And Pudukkottai Regions: A Report of the Explorations"
Tamil Civilization 19:24-35.