The study published in a report titled ‘Antiquity of Iron: Recent Radiometric Dates from Tamil Nadu’, challenges established assumptions about Iron Age in the world and India.
Key Findings
- Iron technology in Tamil Nadu dates as far back as 3345 BCE.
- Charcoal & potsherds from the Sivagalai site ranged from 2953 BCE to 3345 BCE, making it the earliest recorded evidence of iron technology globally.
- Sarcophagus burial found at Kilnamandi dated to 1692 BCE is the earliest-dated burial of its kind in Tamil Nadu.
- Iron-smelting furnaces identified at Mayiladumparai, Kilnamandi, Perungalur sites etc. shows region’s technological sophistication in producing durable iron tools and weapons.
Significance
- Challenges Global Iron Age Timeline: The Iron Age, is traditionally linked to the Hittite Empire in Anatolia (Turkey), where iron technology is believed to have emerged around 1300 BCE.
- Challenges established linearity of cultures—iron succeeded copper because it required a different kind of skill & a more advanced level of metallurgical expertise.
- Iron Age & Copper-Bronze Age Likely Contemporary in India: Unlike the global progression where Iron Age succeeded Copper-Bronze Age.
- Previously, the Iron Age in India was thought to begin between 1500 and 2000 BCE, closely following the Indus Valley Civilization.
- Challenges prevailing Theories like V. Gordon Childe & Mortimer Wheeler, who proposed that iron spread from a single Western center to the Indian subcontinent.
Dating Techniques Used in Study
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