THE AGE OF DISAGREEMENT

The ASI issues a stern decree to Tamil Nadu: do not travel too far back in time with ancient Keezhadi

- By Kavitha Muralidharan

IN TIMES when historical controversies can raise enough dust to bury entire civilisations, the ancient Tamil site of Keezhadi has re-emerged as a flashpoint.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has asked the site's lead archaeologist to revise his final report of January 2023essentially, to locate the site on a much later timeline than the 6th-8th century BC originally suggested by the evidence.

This has sparked fresh allegations of political interference in historical research. 'Postdating' the site would take away all the excitement from a discovery that had conferred greater civilisational depth to Tamil Nadu, pushing back its Sangam era by three centuries.

Archaeologist K. Amarnath Ramakrishna, who led the early phases of excavation, has rejected the ASI's demand, stating that he stands by his 982-page report. His conclusions, he says, were based on unimpeachable scientific methods like stratigraphy and accelerator mass spectrometry. The state of the art in radiocarbon dating, the latter method has a precision of 40 years for recent antiquity.