Iron Age graveyard unearthed
Monday, June 22, 2009 from www.dnaindia.com
Dindigul (TN): A glass bead-making unit and an Iron Age graveyard, both about 2,500 years old, have been unearthed during the ongoing excavation in and around Porunthal, 12-km from here, an archaeology expert said.
The excavation made at Paasi Medu (bead mound) venue, a site spread over 5.5 hectares on the ancient East-West Trade route linking Tamil Nadu and Kerala, revealed presence of a glass bead manufacturing unit, Prof K Rajan, Archaeology Department, University of Pondicherry, told reporters at Palani near here yesterday.
They also recovered thousands of beads in various colours including red, white, black, yellow, maroon and green from the site along with 30 identical redware bowls, triangular terracotta pieces and two furnaces.
This could have been the place where glass beads had been manufactured in ancient Tamil Nadu, he said. "We feel that this place might have been a glass bead manufacturing factory. It should be around 2,500 years old," said former archaeology professor Shanmugam.
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