Excavations of Iron in Tamil Nadu

Excavations of Iron in Tamil Nadu

News: Carbon dating of excavated finds in Tamil Nadu pushes evidence of iron being used in India back to 4,200 years ago, the Tamil Nadu government announced this week on the basis of an archaeological report.
• Before this, the earliest evidence of iron use was from 1900-2000 BCE for the country, and from 1500 BCE for Tamil Nadu.
• The latest evidence dates the findings from Tamil Nadu to 2172 BCE which is much older.
• The results of dating, used accelerator mass spectroscopy.

About:
• The excavations are from Mayiladumparai near Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu.
• Mayiladumparai is an important site with cultural material dating back between the Microlithic (30,000 BCE) and Early Historic (600 BCE) ages.

Significance:
• Invention of iron technology led to the production of agricultural tools and weapons, leading to production required for a civilisation ahead of economic and cultural progress. There is no known record of iron being used in the Indus Valley, where copper was first utilized by Indians (1500 BCE).
• Deforestation occurred only after humans began using iron tools to clear dense forests and bring land into agriculture, because copper tools would have been difficult to use to clear dense forests and bring land into agriculture.
• With the latest evidence tracing our Iron Age to 2000 BCE from 1500 BC, it can be assumed that the cultural seeds were laid in 2000 BCE. Around 600 BCE, iron technology led to massive production triggered by socio-economic changes - the Tamil Brahmi script.
• The Tamil Brahmi scripts were once believed to have originated around 300 BCE, until a landmark finding in 2019 pushed the date back to 600 BCE.
• This dating narrowed the gap between the Indus Valley civilisation and Tamilagam/South India’s Sangam Age.