Department of Archeology / Tamil Nadu
An aerial view of the Iron Age Tombs in Yiladimprai in Tamil.
For more than 20 years, archaeologists from the southern state of India from Tamil Nadu have discovered clues to the former past of the region.
Their excavations discovered the first scripts which rewrite literacy deadlines, mapped maritime commercial roads connecting India to the world and revealed advanced urban establishments – strengthening the role of the state as a cradle of early civilization and global trade.
Now they have also discovered something older – evidence of what could be the first manufacturing and use of iron. Current Turkey is one of the first known regions where iron was extracted, extracted and forged on an important scale around the 13th century BC.
Archaeologists discovered iron objects on six sites at Tamil Nadu, dating back to 2,953 to 3.345 BCE, between 5,000 and 5,400 years. This suggests that the process of extraction, fusion, forging and shaping iron to create tools, weapons and other objects can have developed independently in the Indian subcontinent.
“The discovery is of such great importance that it will take more time before its implications sink,” explains Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, professor of South Asian archeology at the University of Cambridge.
Department of Archeology / Tamil Nadu
A multitude of iron objects more than 5,000 years old have been found at Tamil Nadu
The latest discoveries of Adichchaallurur, Sivagalai, Mayiladomparai, Killanandi, Mangadu and Thelunganur made the headlines such as “Iron Age started at Tamil Nadu?” Age marks a period when companies have started to use and produce largely, manufacturing tools, weapons and infrastructure.
Parth R Chauhan, professor of archeology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (ISSER), urges caution before drawing general conclusions. He thinks that iron technology is probably emerged “independently in several regions”.
In addition, “the earliest evidence remains uncertain because many regions of the world have not been properly sought or archaeological evidence is known but have not been dated properly”.
If the discovery of Tamil Nadu is still validated by the rigorous academic study, “he would certainly rank among the first world records,” said Mr. Chauhan. Oishi Roy, archaeologist at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), adds that the discovery “suggests parallel developments (in iron production) in different parts of the world”.
Department of Archeology / Tamil Nadu
Rest of an iron merger furnace on the Kodumanal site
Early iron came in two forms – meteoritic and melted. The melted iron, extract from the ore, marked the real start of iron technology with mass production. The first known iron artifacts – nine tubular balls – were made from meteoritic iron, which comes from fallen meteorites.
Identification of iron rocks is the first challenge. Once located, these ores must be melted in a furnace at extremely high temperatures to extract metal. Without this process, raw iron remains locked in the rock. After extraction, the qualified irrons shape the metal in tools and implemented, marking a crucial step in the first iron work.
Most of the Tamil Nadu sites where iron has been found are old residential areas near current villages. Archaeologists K Rajan and R Sivanantham say that the excavators have so far explored a fraction of more than 3,000 iron age tombs containing sarcophagi (stone coffins) and a wealth of iron artefacts. In the process, they discovered hoe, lances, knives, arrow tips, scissors, axes and iron swords.
During the burials searched on a site, more than 85 iron objects – knives, arrow tip, rings, scissors, axes and swords – were found inside and outside the burial ballot. More than 20 key samples have been robustly dated in five laboratories in the world, confirming their antiquity.
Some discoveries are particularly striking.
The historian Osmund Bopearachchi, from the French National Center for Scientific Research based in Paris, highlights a key discovery-an iron sword from a funeral site, in ultra-high steel and dating from the 13th-5th century BC.
This advanced steel, a direct evolution of the metallurgy of the Iron Age, required sophisticated knowledge and precise processes at high temperature.
“We know that the first signs of real steel production date back to the 13th century BC in current Turkey. The radiometric dates seem to prove that the samples of Tamil Nadu are earlier,” he said. Ms. Roy adds that early steel at Tamil Nadu indicates that people there “were iron manufacturers, not just users – a technologically advanced community evolving over time”.
Department of Archeology / Tamil Nadu
A Grave of the Iron Age found on the excavation site of Kunlanddi
In addition, in a site called Kodomanal, the excavators found a furnace, pointing to an advanced iron manufacturing community.
The furnace area stood out with its white discoloration, probably in extreme heat. Nearby, the excavators have found iron slag – part of it merged on the oven wall – alluding to advanced metal work techniques. Obviously, people on the site did not only use iron, but produced it and actively treatments.
Admittedly, the excavations of Tamil Nadu are not the first in India to discover iron. At least 27 sites in eight states have revealed evidence of early use of iron, some dating from 4,200 years. The last excavations of the Tamil Nadu repel the antiquity of Indian iron by an additional 400 years, “said archaeologist Rajan, who co-wrote an article on the subject.
“The Iron Age is a technological change, not a unique event – it develops independently in several places,” explains Ms. Roy, noting previous discoveries in the east, west and northern India.
“What is clear now,” she adds, “is that native iron technology developed at the start of the Indian subcontinent”.
Getty images
Archaeologists rummaging through an Iron Age site in Türkiye – the region where this transformer era started
Experts say that excavations at Tamil Nadu are significant and could reshape our understanding of the Iron Age and Iron Fusion in the Indian subcontinent. In addition, “what these excavations testify is from the existence of a distinctly sophisticated style of civilization”, notes Nirmala Lakshman, author of the Tamils- a portrait of a community.
However, archaeologists warn that there is still a lack of excavations necessary to collect new data from all over India. As an expert said, “Indian archeology is in silent mode outside of Tamil Nadu.”
Katragadda Paddayya, a leading Indian archaeologist, said that it was “just the starting point”.
“We must deepen the origins of iron technology – these results mark the start, not the conclusion. The key is to use it as premise, to retrace the process behind and to identify the sites where iron production has really started.”
