This research was collaboration was initiated in September 2002, in collaboration with Dr. K Rajan, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, Tamil University, Thanjuvar, who had been a Charles Wallace Trust visiting fellow at the Institute of Archaeology January-March 2002.
Although, active fieldwork in the first season was limited to 2 weeks, work included the first systematic archaeobotanical samples recovered from three sites in the state of Tamil Nadu (see below). In addition, this trip provided an opportunity to begin collecting a wood reference collection of modern woody plant taxa of South India, to assist identification of archaeological wood charcoal from South Indian sites (which is a component of a Leverhulme Research project that began in Jan. 2003: -- this wood collection was funded by a Reckitt Travelling Fellowship from the British Academy to Dr. Eleni Asouti.
Sites sampled included two that were under excavation by the Tamil State Government Department of Archaeology and one which Dr. Rajan has had excavations on in the past (see map above). All three sites are primarily early Historic in date (300BC-200 AD), although one site shows continuous occupation to the 8th century. The visits to these sites included fruitful interaction and discussion with local excavators from the state department of archaeology and provided the first introduction for most of them to sampling for archaeological plant remains through flotation.
Mangudi , located Southwest of the village of the same name, Southwest of the town of Rajapalayam in Madurai district, on the banks of a seasonal watercourse called locally Deviaru, just east of the Varushanad Hills. The Madurai office of the state archaeology department (C. Salthalingam and his colleagues) was at the end of a three month excavation season in which they had opened 7, 4x4 meter trenches to a maximum depth of ca. 2 meters. Most trenches had one or two layers yielding early historic pottery. In two trenches on the South side of the site, underlying deposits yielded lithics without ceramics. It is not yet clear whether this represents much earlier mesolithic/ ‘microlithic’ occupation of a site that was reoccupied, or whether aceramic (hunter-gatherer?) societies persisted in this region up to ca. 3oo BC. Discussions with the archaeologists indicate that other sites in the region indicate a similar pattern. The lack of well-documented Neolithic, or indeed Iron Age, occupation sites in this region could indicate that sedentary agricultural occupations were introduced only in the late 1st millennium BC during the same period as early inscriptional evidence, although further archaeological exploration, excavation and dating is needed to confirm. 19 flotation samples were collected here although Charcoal yields were generally low.
Kodumanal, located on the north bank of the Noyil river between Coimbatore and Erode is a substantial occupation site which has yielded evidence of quartz bead production and cotton textile production in previous excavations by Dr. Rajan, in addition to 150+ megalithic burials in surrounding cemeteries. The importance of this site in long distance exchange networks is indicated by find of long distance imports in excavated graves, including many etched carnelian beads (closest sources in Maharashtra) and some lapis lazuli (closest sources in Afghanistan). The agricultural base of this settlement has not been systematically investigated previously although earlier excavations did yield some chance funds of charred seeds, including nonce cache of charred cotton seeds.A 2x2 meter trench was excavated by us in the area of the site thought have the deepest habitation deposits. It procured ca. 2 meters of archaeology in 5 major layers. 23 samples were floated from this sequence. Those below 1 meter generally yielded substantial carbonized material while samples from the upper layers were poor.
Perur, located northeast of the city of Coimbatore is the site of a historical 8/9th c. temple as well as an ancient settlement. Two settlement mounds are located on the south bank of the Noyil river. Threnches were excavated in both mounds by the Coimbatore office of the State archaeology department (Dr. R. Poongundam and his colleagues, as well as T. Subramanian from the Thanjuvar office). The western mound, with deposits from the 7th to 8th century AD, had ca. 2 meters in 3 layers. 6 Samples were floated from here. In the eastern mound which has upper layers of 5th/6th century date, l excavation unit was ongoing into early historic layers at depths greater than 4 meters. 12 samples were collected and floated from this sequence. Yields of carbonized material from the lower layers were substantial.
Note: This content has been published in UCL Institute, UK.
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