Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, MK Stalin, made the announcement of the discovery in the assembly.
Chennai:
In a shootout for Tamil Nadu’s claims that its lands were home to a much older prosperous civilization than previously established, recent “Porunai” archaeological excavations along the Thamiraparani River have found scientific evidence of ‘advanced human housing of more than 3,200 years, the state government said on Thursday.
Making this announcement in the state assembly, the chief minister, MK Stalin, said that the carbon dating investigation of rice grains and skin that is in an urn of the Beta analytical testing laboratory based in Miami has revealed to belong to 1155 BC.
Excavations prior to Adhichanallur and Korkai, believed to be a port, in Tuticorin district have been confirmed by experts belonging to the 9th century BC and 8th century BC respectively, confirming a mature civilization there, now called Tamiraparani.
Stressing the need to update the history of the civilization of the Indian subcontinent, MK Stalin added: “The history of the civilization of the Indian subcontinent should be rewritten from the landscape of Tamil Nadu.”
Carbon dating was done by the Beta analytical testing lab based in Miami, Florida, USA.
Similar finds of a silver coin with symbols of sun, moon, taurine and some geometric designs found in the Keeladi excavations in Sivaganga district have been found to belong to the 4th century BC before Mauryan, compared to the Gupta series. Hardekar. The latest revelations made the Porunai civilization more than 600 years old.
Calling the Porunai civilization the oldest in southern India and backed by the scientific process, Industries and Archeology Minister Thangam Thennarasu told NDTV: “This scientifically proves that Tamil civilization is as old as the valley civilization. Tamil is a classical language, previously portrayed as not as old as it is portrayed, and now, through a scientific process, it has been scientifically established that it is an ancient language and that there was a very ancient civilization. rich in cultural, commercial and industrial activities “.
Renowned historian V Sriram said: “In the past, we had numerous literary proofs in terms of Sangam poetry that describe very clearly what advanced regions like Korakai and Kaveripoompatinnam were like. These discoveries now only reinforce these valuable treatises.”
The state government has said it will create an archeological museum in Tirunelveli for 15 million euros and expand its archaeological excavations and research to other countries such as Egypt, Oman, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam with which ancient Tamils have had links. commercial and cultural. .
Confirming that it was the new DMK government that sent the samples for carbon dating, Mr Thennarasu added: “Whenever DMK comes to power, it attaches importance to Tamil, Tamil culture and Tamil development. Even in a short period of time, we have made significant discoveries. “