Passionate Perceptions

After the initial exploration along the Vaigai belt and zeroing down on Keezhadi,  https://www.kavivenkatesan.com/2019/12/the-path-to-keezhadi.html , the ASI team led by Amarnath Ramakrishnan started the excavation. I Phase 1st Phase was started in June 2015 and around 40 trenches were dug. The first phase went on for around 6 months II Phase 2nd Phase was started in Jan 2016 and played a critical role in unraveling the existence of an urbanized and literate civilization. Thousands of artifacts were found and based on the radio carbon dating the age was determined to be around 3rd BCE (Dating back to 2300 yrs). ASI transferred* Amarnath after the second phase III Phase 3rd Phase started in Jan 2017, led by P S Sriraman of ASI and went on until September 2017. When the first two phase focused towards south of the excavation, the 3rd phase moved towards north. 10 people were involved in digging trenches where as in the first two phases around 80 people were involved. O

Significance of Keezhadi While all other sites excavated in TamilNadu are primarily burial sites (Adhichanallur, Korkai, Alagankulam etc.,) , Keezhadi is the first site where various evidences of urban civilization have been found. This discovery challenges the history of India, where it's being believed that the Indian civilization originated and evolved along the Indo-Gangetic valley.  There are numerous reference to urban civilization in the Sangam literature. But until Keezhadi was discovered, there was no archaeological evidence to corroborate the claims in the Sangam literature.  The Tamil civilization in those ages were believed to be of a proto-civilization. The discovery have produced indisputable evidences on urbanized civilization with brick walled constructions extending upto 500 metres with well evolved drainage systems. The most significant part of the discovery is that of the Thamizhi/Tamil Brahmi (தமிழி) scriptures found on earthen wares and other