01What the trenches found
The ASI began digging in a coconut grove at Keezhadi in 2015 under K. Amarnath Ramakrishna, and the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology took over from 2017. The trenches have turned up brick walls and floors, roof tiles with grooves for rain, covered drains, ring wells, a dyeing vat, spindle whorls, gold ornaments, carnelian and glass beads, ivory dice and combs, and terracotta toys. More than a thousand potsherds carry graffiti, many of them personal names in Tamil-Brahmi such as ‘Aathan’ and ‘Kuviran’.
02Why the dates matter
In 2019 the state department’s report gave an accelerator mass spectrometry date of about 580 BCE for a charcoal sample from the layer with Tamil-Brahmi sherds. If the reading holds, people here were writing names on their pots about the time of the Buddha, earlier than had been thought. Keezhadi also shows no temple or ritual structure so far, only a working town of craft and trade. The Keezhadi site museum, built in the Chettinad style, opened in March 2023 beside the trenches.
The life of this place
- c. 580 BCEEarliest radiocarbon date from the inscribed-sherd layer.
- 2015ASI excavations begin.
- 2017Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology takes over.
- March 2023The Keezhadi museum opens.
The museum is closed on Tuesdays in most seasons; check before going. Open trenches can be seen in the excavation season.
