Excavations began a month ago at the site in Nangur where ear ornaments

Excavations began a month ago at the site in Nangur where ear

ornaments

Literary, epigraphical and archaeological sources have thrown up references of Nangur as a village entrenched in history, but a month-long archaeological excavation later it is now among the rare sites with evidence of a settlement dating to the Sangam era.An excavation, conducted by a team of researchers from the department of maritime history and marine archaeology at Tamil University, found blackware and redware pottery.The ongoping excavation also unearthed a workshop of a blacksmith. “The black and red ware pottery had a fish symbol,” said V Selvakumar, associate professor, department of maritime history and marine archaeology, who led the team.Chola-era rooftiles with folded ends and rounded tips, terracotta figurines, dice, ear ornaments, broken bangles and glass and stone beads were found. “The terracotta figurines are of excellent workmanship. Evidence of the settlement was found at a depth of more than 3m and revealed that Nangur was an important settlement of the Sangam age,” he said.Nangur, one of the 108 divyadesams for Vaishnavites, finds mention in Tamil poetic works such as ‘Pattinappalai’ and ‘Porunararruppatai’ but this is the first evidence of life in the region, said Selvakumar. “Sangam-era king Karikalan is said to have married the daughter of Nangur Vel, a village chief, according to local legend. The Vaishnava alvar songs mention the temples of Nangur,” he said.However, an key piece of evidence related to Nangur lies in the inscription at Takua Pa in Thailand which mentions Nangurutaiyan who dug a tank and was probably a landlord from Nangur.Nangur was a ‘nadu’ and Kaveripumpattinam (ancient port city) was under Nangur Nadu. It was to understand the ‘nadu’ formation and the importance of settlements in the lower Cauvery valley and to understand the history of Nangur village that an excavation was undertaken with the permission of the Archaeological Survey of India.The research project under UGC suggests that many of the Divayadesams and Devaram settlements have evidence of human settlement from the Iron Age. “Some of these old settlements became territorial headquarters called ‘nadu’. The research seeks to answer questions related to the formation of settlements and beginning of agriculture in the lower Cauvery valley. More research and radiocarbon dating are to be undertaken at this site,” said Selvakumar. Tamil University vice-chancellor G Balasubramaniam visited the site on Thursday to extend support.