Last January, when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin released a monograph placing the Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent as early as the first quarter of the fourth millennium BCE, excitement within the state archaeology department was unmistakable. It marked a key moment in efforts to revisit Indian history through the lens of the Tamil south. Earlier scholarship had dated the advent of iron in India to the first millennium BCE. Evidence from sites such as Keeladi, Adichanallur, Mayiladumparai and Sivagalai, however, suggested far earlier dates, ranging between 2953 BCE and 3345 BCE. As Stalin read the statement in the assembly, the young archaeological team responsible for unearthing and documenting the material was visibly elated.
Excavations at Keeladi, Sivagalai and Adichanallur have revealed traces of an ancient, urban and literate Tamil civilisation, challenging long-held assumptions that portrayed south India as peripheral in early historical narratives. Evidence of sophisticated iron-working, urban planning, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and extensive trade networks points to a complex culture that was contemporary with, and connected to, the wider world, including the Indus Valley civilisation.
At the heart of this effort is a team of young archaeologists who have spent years working in the field. Among them are Ajay Kumar Ramamoorthy, Victor Gnanaraj, R. Kavya and Vasantha Kumar Kathirvelu, who have played a central role in demonstrating that the Iron Age existed in southern India alongside the Bronze Age of the Indus Valley and in strengthening Dravidian claims to antiquity in the subcontinent.
A short drive from the Madurai railway junction leads to a village in Sivaganga district, where the highway narrows into a muddy track flanked by coconut groves and farmland. Once an unremarkable settlement on the banks of the Vaigai river, Keeladi has become a prominent point on the global archaeological map. The Keeladi museum houses some of the most significant archaeological discoveries in India and offers new insight into the ancient past of Tamil civilisation.
Excavations at Keeladi revealed a thriving urban settlement dating back more than 2,000 years, broadly corresponding to the Sangam Age. Ajay Kumar Ramamoorthy, the archaeological officer at Keeladi, says his own journey into archaeology began far from the trenches. Raised in an urban neighbourhood of Chennai, he was a commerce student and his parents wanted him to become a chartered accountant. Instead, he found himself drawn to libraries and Tamil historical novels, which sparked an interest in history, temple architecture and archaeology. He later pursued postgraduate studies in archaeology and epigraphy at the University of Madras.
“My parents did not want me to take up archaeology,” Ramamoorthy says. But he went on to complete an MPhil at the same university, which opened the door to excavation work. Though initially interested in archaeoastronomy, he credits his professor Jinu Koshy with steering him towards prehistoric studies. Ramamoorthy joined the Keeladi excavation as a site supervisor under archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna, later working at the Archaeological Survey of India in Delhi before returning to Keeladi after clearing the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission examination.
Since then, he has been involved in every phase of excavation and in establishing the Keeladi museum, designed in the Chettinad architectural style. “Keeladi always surprised me,” he says, pointing to inscriptions on potsherds recovered from the site. He recalls the discovery of a decorated ring well that initially appeared ordinary. Closer examination revealed motifs and a fish symbol that was later identified as a clan marker, indicating a socially organised and culturally sophisticated community.
Ramamoorthy’s background in commerce proved unexpectedly useful. His familiarity with statistics allowed him to create three-dimensional scatter plots to establish chronology, trace cultural change and reconstruct historical narratives. He takes particular pride in curating the museum. “We worked for a full year after the eighth phase of excavation in 2022,” he says. “Documentation went on day and night. There were days when we slept for barely two hours.”
Nearly 10,000 antiquities from Keeladi are now on display, including terracotta figurines, glass and carnelian beads, iron tools, a bronze tiger miniature, gold objects and punch-marked coins. These finds bring together literary and archaeological evidence, corroborating and, in some cases, pushing back dates associated with early Tamil history. Sangam literature is traditionally dated between the third century BCE and the third century CE, but Keeladi suggests a much earlier material culture associated with these texts.
Further south, along the Tirunelveli–Kanyakumari highway, another ambitious project has taken shape. Spread across 54,000 square feet, the Porunai Museum, located near the Reddiyarpatti hillock in Tirunelveli, houses artefacts recovered from Adichanallur, Korkai, Sivagalai, Thirumalapuram, Thulukkarpatti and Kilnamandi. The museum was inaugurated by Stalin on December 20. While inaugurating the museum, the chief minister criticised the BJP-led Union government for ignoring the scientific evidence unearthed at various archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu. “It is a 2,000-year-old struggle for the Tamils,” he said.
The site is teeming with archaeologists documenting material and preparing displays. Among them is 30-year-old Victor Gnanaraj, leading a young team working on the museum project. While Keeladi revealed urban settlement patterns, Gnanaraj’s most significant contributions have come from Kilnamandi village in Tiruvannamalai district. He now serves as archaeological officer-cum-excavation director at Kilnamandi. The site yielded the first scientifically dated sarcophagus, or terracotta coffin, in Tamil Nadu, suggesting possible trade or cultural contact with northern India during the late Harappan period.
The findings emerged after months of excavation under harsh conditions. When Gnanaraj first arrived, the 55-acre government-owned site resembled an abandoned quarry. “It felt like just another excavation,” he says. As digging progressed, the site revealed dolerite flakes on cairn heaps and surface indicators of stone-circle burials. “Tool-making must have been common here. We may be looking at as many as 50 burials.”
Gnanaraj’s entry into archaeology was unplanned. He had initially aspired to study aeronautical engineering, but circumstances led him elsewhere. With little interest in memorising historical dates, he enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in archaeology at Madras Christian College. He also trained under Jinu Koshy, completing a master’s degree at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda before working in Delhi and later joining the Tamil Nadu archaeology department.
Much of his fieldwork at Kilnamandi took place during the Covid-19 lockdown. The isolation helped him cope with the uncertainty of the period, though physical challenges were constant. “It was extremely hot, and rain often threatened to flood the trenches,” he recalls. “There were days when we had to dig the same trench repeatedly.”
The effort paid off. Analysis confirmed the site’s megalithic character. “All the sarcophagi contained black-and-red ware offering pots, which are key markers of the period,” Gnanaraj says. “Some also had capstones.” Together with discoveries from across Tamil Nadu, Kilnamandi adds another layer to an increasingly complex and ancient history of the region.
R. Kavya, 28, can still feel the excitement of digging up the first burial urn at Konthagai, a burial site located barely a kilometre from the main Keeladi site. To her, the Konthagai burial cluster, with urns of varying sizes and carefully placed offering pots, appeared strikingly beautiful. This was where Keeladi’s ancient inhabitants buried their dead.
Her interest grew when she noticed a sharp contrast in soil layers. The top layer was red, while the layer beneath was white, concealing hundreds of burial urns containing the remains of both children and adults. The first urn startled her. When a second emerged soon after, Kavya immediately instructed the workers not to touch it. She insisted that no one should put their hands inside the urns, as they lacked the training to handle skeletal remains or recognise the significance of artefacts. Only someone with proper knowledge, she believed, should work inside an urn burial to prevent careless digging or loss of material.
Kavya herself spent hours carefully excavating each urn. Many contained offering pots. “When I see a white semicircle in the soil, I know for sure there is an urn inside,” she says. Her tireless work and willingness to stay late inspired many women from nearby villages to join her as labourers. The days she got sick, they cared for her like a daughter. “My parents were not very keen on me taking up a job like this. They thought I would eventually return home,” she says. “But when my mother visited me at Keeladi, she understood my passion.”
While most of her relatives chose engineering or other professional courses, Kavya opted to pursue a bachelor’s degree in history at Ethiraj College in Chennai. A science student in school, she initially aspired to join the civil services. Coming from a dominant community in western Tamil Nadu, where women are largely expected to remain homemakers, she faced opposition, especially as the only daughter in the family. She completed her degree, but at 20 was still too young to write the civil services examination.
During the gap year, Kavya enrolled for a master’s degree in archaeology at the Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute in Pune. Her interest deepened rapidly. After returning to Tamil Nadu, she completed a postgraduate diploma in epigraphy and inscriptions offered by the state archaeology department, which enabled her to work as an archaeological officer. By then, her commitment to archaeology was firm.
Standing before the Adichanallur gallery at the Egmore Museum in Chennai, dressed in a simple black-and-white kurti, Kavya explains how she meticulously planned each day’s work at Konthagai under the harsh summer sun. She had to decide which side of a trench should be opened to expose one-third of a burial urn, ensuring it remained intact while allowing further excavation. Her planning resulted in a remarkably organised site, with each conical urn clearly profiled within neatly cut square trenches.
During fieldwork, Kavya often spent hours lying beside skeletal remains inside trenches, armed with a brush, scraping tool and pickaxe. At times, work extended into the evening and the women labourers cautioned her against staying after sunset, reminding her that it was a burial ground. Once, when she fell ill, some villagers attributed it to spirits. She laughs as she recalls how women brought vibhuti and sacred threads to help her recover. “It was just the flu,” she says. “They were wonderful.”
Although the Tamil Nadu archaeology department began excavating Konthagai in 2020, it took nearly a month to clear the dry, thorny vegetation. “Being a burial site in the middle of a village meant it was left isolated because of fear,” Kavya explains. “It continued to be used as a burial ground until about 500 years ago.”
Her most vivid memory is of the first urn she opened. “It was trench C1, urn number three,” she says. The burial was intact. “I interpreted it as a primary burial because we found every phalange bone. There was also an iron implement inside.” It was the first complete primary burial she had worked on. “That experience reaffirmed why I chose this profession.”
Over 137 burial urns were unearthed at Konthagai. Archaeologists concluded that the people of ancient Keeladi followed a specific burial ritual, placing the dead in a seated position inside urns, accompanied by offering pots and grave goods such as iron knives, daggers, axes and beads. Kavya discovered that the carnelian beads were not locally available. Subsequent studies confirmed trade links with regions like Gujarat and Afghanistan.
Since joining the department, Kavya has presented five research papers on Keeladi and spoken at national and international seminars. She has presented her work at the World Archaeology Congress, discussing rustic coated painted pottery excavated at Kongalnagaram in Tiruppur district, where she now serves as archaeological officer-cum-excavation director. She is also one of the archaeological directors at a site in Coimbatore, studying menhir burials.
If Kavya’s story from Konthagai is compelling, the journey of 36-year-old Vasantha Kumar Kathirvelu offers another perspective on the quiet satisfaction of field archaeology. Having worked at sites including Sivagalai, Adichanallur, Thulukkarpatti and Thirumalapuram, he believes fieldwork, rather than office-bound research, brings the deepest fulfilment.
“The Thirumalapuram excavations are not just about unearthing artefacts. They tell a story of cultural continuity and innovation,” says Vasanth, as he is known. He is part of the team setting up the Porunai Museum in Tirunelveli.
Born in Saalur in Chengalpattu district, Vasanth’s interest in archaeology began through temple visits with his farmer father. Drawn to sculpting and temple architecture, he chose fine arts over more lucrative careers pursued by his brothers. He later completed a postgraduate diploma in epigraphy and archaeology.
His first excavation was as a student intern at Arpakkam, followed by work at Srirangam and a three-year stint at Keeladi. He later worked in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh documenting rock art before moving on to Thulukkarpatti, a site comparable in significance to Adichanallur. He now serves as archaeological officer at the Danish fort museum at Tharangambadi in Nagapattinam district.
At Thulukkarpatti, Vasanth and his team unearthed around 4,800 graffiti marks, the highest recorded at a single site in India. These symbols, etched on pottery, offer insights into social identity and cultural interaction. Comparative studies suggest that over 90 per cent have parallels at Indus Valley sites, indicating possible links during the Iron Age.
Thirumalapuram proved uniquely challenging for Vasanth and his team. They lived for over 90 days in makeshift shelters in the foothills of the Western Ghats, without electricity. “Elephants, tigers and snakes were regular visitors,” Vasanth recalls. Excavation revealed cist and urn burials, ceramics and a rectangular stone slab chamber constructed using 35 slabs, the first discovery of its kind in Tamil Nadu.
When work began in June 2024, Vasanth felt little excitement. That changed as graves yielded rich assemblages of artefacts. Even without electricity, the team worked late using mobile phone torches and oil lamps to document findings. Vasanth believes archaeology has gained unprecedented visibility in Tamil Nadu in recent years due to political and institutional support. He remains modest about his future. “I want to remain in field archaeology,” he says.
Wherever he is posted, he brings his family to the site to share the significance of the discoveries. He smiles when he talks about his one-year-old son’s favourite toys. “He prefers shovels, trowels, brushes and buckets,” he says. His wife, who works in IT, visits him on her days off. “The pandemic helped,” he recalls. “She could stay with me while working from home.”
Across Tamil Nadu, archaeology has become more than an academic pursuit. It has become a powerful means of reclaiming memory, identity and historical agency. Through painstaking fieldwork, young archaeologists are uncovering evidence that challenges long-held assumptions and recentres the Tamil landscape in early Indian history.