Ancient site · Settlement
Kodumanal
Also known as Kodumanam
An ancient craft town on the Noyyal river in Erode district, Tamil Nadu, called Kodumanam in Sangam poetry. Excavations found furnaces for iron and high-carbon steel, workshops cutting beads of carnelian, lapis lazuli, sapphire and quartz, megalithic burials and many potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.
It lay on the trade route between the west-coast port of Muziris and Kaveripattinam on the east coast, part of the Indo-Roman trade network.
- Dates
- c. 5th–1st century BCE (dates debated)
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 11.11° N, 77.51° E
How we know
Named Kodumanam in the Sangam poems of the Patirruppattu, and its potsherds carry Tamil-Brahmi names; its dates rest on a few radiocarbon samples.
Nearby sites
- Keezhadi 6th century BCE–3rd century CE (radiocarbon); excavator proposes 8th century BCE; ASI questions this
- Pattanam c. 3rd century BCE–5th century CE
- Arikamedu 2nd century BCE–7th/8th century CE
- Adichanallur c. 1000–600 BCE (radiocarbon); earlier claims debated
- Sivagalai c. 1200–700 BCE (rice from a burial urn); a claim of iron at 3345 BCE is disputed
- Kumari Kandam (legendary) legendary; no real date