Kodumanal is a village located in the Erode district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was once a flourishing ancient trade city known as Kodumanam, as inscribed in Patittrupathu of Sangam Literature.^[1] The place is an important archaeological site, under the control of State Archaeological Department of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the northern banks of Noyyal River, a tributary of the Cauvery.^[2]

The ancient city

The inhabitants of this destroyed ancient city of Chera dynasty were highly skilled craftsmen, who were specialized in making beads and high-quality iron. The place is referred to in Sangam literature as an important industrial centre that had links with the Chola port city of Kaveripoompattinam, now called Poompuhar.

Roman trade route

The city played a major role in Indo-Roman trade and relations, as the ancient city is located on the mid-way of a Roman trade route, linking Muziris port on the Malabar Coast with the Kaveripoompattinam (Puhar) Port in the Coromandel Coast.^[3][4][5]

Megalithic tombs

Excavations have been carried out and it came out with the layers of a megalithic-cum-early tombs of historic period. Also there were two female and one male human skeleton were recovered from a pit burial in this site. A set of 300 megalithic tombs of different types and sizes were observed and recorded in this area. The ancient city has been destroyed in time and now the area is available with the remains of a megalithic settlement dating back to the 2nd century BC. Apparently, this was the centre for the Romans who visited to obtain beryls from Kodumanal. The megalithic communities that flourished in this site belong to the period of 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD.^[1]

Iron and metal

The iron and steel furnaces and iron artefacts produced in these places revealed the technical advancement made by the iron smelters around 500 BC. The excavated sword bit contained spheroidal graphite phase and forge welding of high-carbon cutting edge.^[6][7] This place was once celebrated for its trade in precious stones like garnet, carnelian, lapis lazuli, sapphire and quartz. The people of this city were experts in manufacturing the finest iron.

Collections

Excavations uncovered ancient iron objects such as arrow heads and swords.^[8] They also produced Roman artefacts, iron melting furnaces, beads, shell bangles and pottery with the Tamizhi scripts (from the habitation deposits and burials). Other artifacts uncovered during the excavation of this site include roulette pottery, Roman silver coins, and gold and silver spirals. A bronze statue of a lion and the iron melting furnaces were important to deciphering the site's history.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodumanal 

Government of Tamil Nadu - Department of Archaeology

The Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology in collaboration with the Tamil University, Thanjavur conducted excavations at Kodumanal situated in Perundurai taluk in Erode District

The excavation had brought to light two cultural periods viz:

 

• Megalithic period
• The early historic period

 

 

 

Black and red ware, black slipped ware, russet coated ware and red slipped ware were found in the excavation. Apart from these, beads made of quartz and clay, inscribed potsherds and graffiti potsherds were unearthed.

 

A megalithic cairn circle at this site was also excavated. The grave goods such as lids, bowls, dishes, four legged jars and

 

ring stands were found placed outside the primary cist. At the southeastern side of this primary cist an urn was found which surprisingly yielded 782 beads made of carnelian. An iron sword measuring 169 cm length was also found at the eastern side of the main cist. Besides, four iron swords, a copper toddy filter with lotus and peacock designs, double edged axe, small daggers, stirrup like object, potsherds bearing graffiti were also gathered.

Reference: https://www.tnarch.gov.in/kodumanal

Stone Spell

Kodumanal: beautiful but neglected, says SOMA BASU

A BURIAL site for an RLT trip? Everybody thought I was crazy. Maybe I was, but this "ghostland" was no ordinary one. As I discovered, my destination was a place of tremendous archaeological value, historicity and antiquity. And so here is the story of this surprise of surprises by the banks of the river Noyyal.

Once known as Kodumanam and today as Kodumanal, it is a neglected area with remains of a megalithic settlement dating back to the 2nd Century B.C. Apparently, this was the centre the Romans used to visit to obtain beryls in the beginning of the Christian era! Excavations carried out three decades ago unearthed the importance of this place, but yet it remains like a forgotten chapter in history.

Kodumanal village is so unknown that I draw a blank whenever I ask for directions on my way from Dindigul to Dharmapuram to Kangeyam village. Everybody thinks I am confusing my destination with Kodumudi, famous for its three-in-one temple of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This sleepy hamlet lies between Coimbatore and Erode and exceptionally well-maintained tar-topped roads lead you to the site. The only people who were able to help with directions were the really elderly ones.

The credit of discovering the site, which extends over 50 hectares, goes to the State Archaeological Department. It acted on a tip off from a local person — Ramaswamy, manager of Thangaman temple in the village, near whose house stands one of the megalithic stones. It wasn't an easy task for Ramaswamy to convince people of the importance of the stones. He had spent years trying to tell people — even those in history, literature and other research departments of universities — that his village was no ordinary village.

Megalithic tombs

Finally, help came in the late Seventies. Excavations revealed layers of a megalithic-cum-early historic period. Two females and one male human skeleton were recovered from a pit burial, 300 megalithic tombs of different types and sizes were observed and recorded, Roman artefacts, iron melting furnaces, beads, shell bangles and pottery with the Brahmi script were recovered from the habitation deposits and burials.

It was believed that the megalithic communities flourished from 2nd Century B.C. to 2nd Century A.D. The inhabitants were highly skilled craftsmen specialising in making beads and high quality iron. The place is referred to in Sangam literature as an important industrial centre that had links with the Chola port city of Kaveripoompattinam.

But sadly, this place that traded in precious stones such as garnet and quartz and produced the finest iron (legend, probably apocryphal, has it that the rustless wonder called the Iron Pillar in Qutub Minar was produced here!) is uncared for today.

The neglect is so obvious that one finds several of the megalithic stones — a number that has dwindled to 100 for unknown reasons — hidden behind tall and wild plants and weeds.

The stones are scattered all over and children, ignorant of the site's importance, play and cause further damage to what survives. Ramaswamy and his son try to keep some spots with megalithic stones clean to preserve them for posterity.

Located by the north bank of river Noyyal, a tributary of the Cauvery, Kodumanal holds out plenty of charm. What did I do? I walked and walked around in the area with an eerie feeling of stepping into an ancestral past. Even gazing at the stones filled me with amazement.

I crossed the river on a makeshift wood plank to reach the village temple on the other side.

With coconut groves in the background and many water birds flying low over the river, I wondered why such a beautiful place that boasts of so much history should be allowed to decay. Would writing an RLT help in some way to restore its diminishing glory?

sources from: Hindu

Genesis of ‘ukku’: Insights from megalithic ferrous metallurgy, high-tin bronzes and

Genesis of ‘ukku’: Insights from megalithic ferrous metallurgy, high-tin bronzes and
crafts
‘Wootz’ is known to be an anglicised version of ‘ukku’, the word for steel in south India. The term ‘ukku’ may
derive from ‘uruku’, used to describe fused or melted metal in Tamil Sangam literature dated broadly from about
the 5th century BC to 5th century AD, while accounts of the Greek Zosimos of the early Christian era suggests that
the Indians used crucible processes to make metal for swords, i.e. steel. Pliny’s ‘Natural History’ talks of iron from
the Seres which may refer to the ancient south Indian kingdom of the Cheras who are referred to in Sangam
texts. While Thelma Lowe, most of all, and others have made crucial studies on the mechanisms of late medieval
Deccani wootz production, there still remains much to be investigated and clearly established concerning the
antiquity of wootz steel in India and on the identification of ancient artefacts of wootz. It is significant that there
are a couple of analyses reported in early excavation reports from some megalithic sites in southern India of iron
artefacts with 1-2% carbon (for eg. two javelins from megalithic Andhra Pradesh mentioned in Sundara 1999);
however further investigations with micro-structural evidence may be required to ascertain if these can be taken
as conclusive evidence for wootz steel. Investigations by the author on a crucible fragment from the megalithic
site of Kodumanal (3rd century BC) excavated by K. Rajan, Tamil University, found in an iron smelting hearth
showed it to be iron-rich without any other significant metal, which did not rule out the fact that it could belong to
some kind of ferrous process although as yet no clear evidence of metallic remnants could be found in the crucible
(Srinivasan and Griffiths 1997).
Significantly, the author has identified from surface surveys three previously unknown sites for crucible steel
production in southern India (ibid.). Crucibles from one of these sites, Mel-siruvalur in Tamil Nadu shows clear
evidence for the production of a hyper-eutectoid (1.3% C) steel, i.e. a high-carbon steel, probably even by molten
carburisation processes at high-temperatures (Srinivasan 1994, Srinivasan and Griffiths 1997). More significantly,
the site shows signs of megalithic occupation in the vicinity as independently verified by Sasisekaran (2002) while
the author found numerous remains of what appeared to be legs of megalithic sarcophagi in a dried up canal near
the dump. (The megalithic period in southern India ranges in different places from the early 1st millennium BC to
early centuries AD). This site is being further investigated by the author. Other aspects of megalithic iron
production to be touched upon include the iron smelting furnace excavated at Naikund, from the Vidharbha
megaliths of Maharashtra.
As background, this chapter would also briefly explore whether there are technological parameters within the
context of peninsular megaliths which could have supported more advanced metallurgical skills. Previously the
Indian subcontinent had not been associated with a more sophisticated bronze working tradition. However,
metallurgical investigations by the author established for the first time the use of specialized alloys known as hightin
beta bronzes (which are quenched binary copper-tin alloys bronzes of around 23% tin) to make vessels going
back at least to the iron age burials megaliths of the early first millennium BC of the Indian subcontinent which
rank amongst the early such alloys known in the world, and which are still made in parts of India such as Kerala
by similar processes as reported in Srinivasan (1994b, 1997, 1998a) and in papers written by the author with Ian
Glover while at Institute of Archaeology, London (Srinivasan and Glover 1995, 1997). High-tin beta bronzes
generally do not seem to have been in vogue in Europe, and indeed the Greek Nearchus (4th century BC) mentions
that Indians used golden vessels which shattered when dropped which may be interpreted as high-tin bronze, as
suggested by Rajpitak and Seeley (1979). What is significant is that the processes of quenching high-tin bronze
indicates a general familiarity with heat treatment processes in the megalithic period that could have extended to
the knowledge of iron and steel metallurgy. Other evidence for skilled metallurgical activity comes from evidence
suggesting that the deepest old gold mine in the world comes from Hutti in Karnataka with carbon dates from
timber collected from a depth of about 600 feet from a mine going back to the mid 1st millennium BC
(Radhakrishna and Curtis 1991).

Founds

The word from pandeyhimadri's Blog...


The crucible process could have originated in south India and the finest steel was from the land of Cheras, said K. Rajan, associate professor of archaeology at Tamil University, Thanjavur, who explored a 1st century AD trade centre at Kodumanal near Coimbatore. Rajan's excavations revealed an industrial economy at Kodumanal. Pillar of strength The rustless wonder called the Iron Pillar near the Qutb Minar at Mehrauli in Delhi did not attract the attention of scientists till the second quarter of the 19th century. The inscription refers to a ruler named Chandra, who had conquered the Vangas and Vahlikas, and the breeze of whose valour still perfumed the southern ocean. "The king who answers the description is none but Samudragupta, the real founder of the Gupta empire," said Prof. T.R. Anantharaman, who has authored The Rustless Wonder. Zinc metallurgy travelled from India to China and from there to Europe. As late as 1735, professional chemists in Europe believed that zinc could not be reduced to metal except in the presence of copper. The alchemical texts of the mediaeval period show that the tradition was live in India. In 1738, William Champion established the Bristol process to produce metallic zinc in commercial quantities and got a patent for it. Interestingly, the mediaeval alchemical text Rasaratnasamucchaya describes the same process, down to adding 1.5 per cent common salt to the ore.








The Word Which i found from PonDheepankar blogger:

Kodumanal (world's only gold jewellery embedding centre of those days),
Kundadam (metal works),
Karur (Chera Vanji) (coin mints, anklets, Greco-Roman trade posts, etc..,),
Salem: (first steel workshops whose products were found in the Egyptian pyramids),
lack of necessary exploration stalls efforts to find many other places.
(I am myself taking efforts on my own expenditure and time to explore these fields).


I must tell about him too. He is the guy who is so curious about "Kongu Vellalar".Also he is collecting lots of sources of the community and published into his blogger.
blogger: http://konguvellalagounderhistory.blogspot.com/2007/09/kongu-vellala-gounder-history.html

Iron making Technology-Kodumanal Swords

Kodumanal Swords
I dont understand what is kodumanal swords. Somehow the term is alive.
One korean has written in his blogger. I am wondering , how does this happne?

One thing is damn sure that, the kodumanal has done lot of thigs earlier days which we haven't digged it still..



Iron making Technology:


Production of pig iron, cast iron, and wrought iron in ancient India. Delhi and Dhar iron pillar, forge welding, lamination, paint coating for preventing rusting. Making of swords, the Banaras and Kodumanal swords, carburization in iron instruments used in agriculture and surgery. Rust free preservation techniques adopted for iron, woortz steel. Large scale production of iron alloys, export of iron to European and Middle East countries etc.


Sources From:http://j2k.naver.com/j2k_frame.php/japan/anuraglall.blogspot.com/

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