A groundbreaking study reveals that Tamil Nadu's Iron Age began as early as 3,345 BCE, predating the Hittite Empire's iron usage by a millennium.
Sivagalai -It is an Iron Age habitation-cum-burial site in the Thamirabarani river valley in Thoothukudi district.
Sivagalai excavation - A total of 24 trenches were excavated at these sites, which exposed around 160 urns, a majority of them being redware
Findings - Skeletal remains, paddy grains, over 85 iron objects including knives, arrowheads, chisels, axes, rings, and swords, were found at the site.
Radiometric dating - The samples from Sivagalai were analyzed by three prestigious research institutions
Beta Analytics in the United States
Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow.
Advanced dating techniques - The samples from Sivagalai, however, were subjected to advanced dating techniques
Accelerometer mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS14C) dating for charcoal
Optically stimulated luminescence (OLS) dating for ceramics.
The Report – Findings of the dating study were presented as ‘Antiquity of Iron: Recent Radiometric Dates from Tamil Nadu’, authored by K Rajan and R Sivanantham.
Findings - Radiometric dating of burial urn samples from Sivagalai indicate a thriving Iron Age civilization in southern India in 4th millennium BCE, contemporaneous with copper civilization of Indus Valley.
While the regions to the north of the Vindhyas were still in the Copper Age, southern India may have entered the Iron Age due to a lack of commercially exploitable copper ores.
Adichanallur charcoal - Adichanallur in Thoothukudi district, of Tamilnadu produced a charcoal sample associated with iron objects that was dated to 2517 BCE.
First smelted iron - For the first time in the world, smelted iron has been dated back to the middle of the third millennium BCE.
Hittite Empire (in modern-day Turkey)- This was believed to be the first civilization to use iron, with evidence dating back to around 1,380 BCE.
Other Iron regions of India - Brahmagiri in Karnataka and Gachibowli near Hyderabad, were dated to around 2140 BCE and 2200 BCE, respectively.
