Ancient site · Tomb
Adichanallur
A huge urn-burial ground on the Tamirabarani river in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, first dug in 1876 and by Alexander Rea in 1899–1905. Large pottery urns held human bones together with iron weapons and tools, bronze vessels and ornaments, and gold diadems.
Excavations from 2004 found about 169 more urns, and radiocarbon dates put the burials in the early first millennium BCE. It is one of the key sites of the Iron Age of the far south, near the later Pandya port of Korkai.
- Dates
- c. 1000–600 BCE (radiocarbon); earlier claims debated
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 8.63° N, 77.87° E
How we know
Dated by radiocarbon (one set gives 905–696 BCE); claims of much older dates and of writing on the urns remain debated.
Nearby sites
- Sivagalai c. 1200–700 BCE (rice from a burial urn); a claim of iron at 3345 BCE is disputed
- Keezhadi 6th century BCE–3rd century CE (radiocarbon); excavator proposes 8th century BCE; ASI questions this
- Kumari Kandam (legendary) legendary; no real date
- Pattanam c. 3rd century BCE–5th century CE
- Kodumanal c. 5th–1st century BCE (dates debated)
- Anuradhapura settled c. 900 BCE; capital from the 4th century BCE to the 10th century CE; sacred city today
Related
- Iron Age megalithic cultures of South India archaeological culture
- The world in 1000 BCE: Out of the Collapse chapter