Radiocarbon dating report of the artefacts submitted in the court showed them to be at least 2,200 years old

MADURAI: The findings of the carbon dating analysis of artefacts unearthed from Keezhadi will have serious effects in rewriting the history of this country, observed the Madurai bench of the Madras high court after perusing the results of the radiocarbon dating analysis report submitted by former superintending archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishnan

A division bench of justice M M Sundresh and justice N Satish Kumar made the observation after the counter-affidavit filed by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in response to a petition seeking stay on the order (dated October 3,2018) from the director, exploration and excavation asking Ramakrishnan to restrain from communicating with the new archaeologist authorised to complete the excavation report.

Ramakrishnan was leading the excavation at Keezhadi since 2013 and he oversaw the first two phases after which he was transferred to Guwahati during the third phase of excavation.

Meanwhile, when the petition came up for hearing, ASI’s regional director (south), Dr M Nambirajan submitted a counter-affidavit in which he stated that they have amended the earlier order and Ramakrishnan’s services will be utilized for the report writing work for the excavations done between 2014-2017.

In its counter-affidavit, ASI stated that it does not have any political motivation or malafide intentions to delay the excavation findings of Keezhadi and stated that the excavations so far have not yielded any conclusive evidence to prove it is a first urban civilization in Tamil Nadu. Six more carbon samples would be sent to the lab in Florida to obtain more consistent dates, ASI said.

The court, on recording the submission directed Ramakrishnan to complete the report for the first two phases within seven months.

The court also took note of the radiocarbon dating analyses report from a US-based laboratory, submitted by the ASI, stating that calibrated result would show that age of materials unearthed is between 200- 130 BC and other materials between 120 to 110 BC.

Essentially, the artefacts unearthed are at least 2,200 years old.

Justice Sundresh and justice Satish Kumar also directed the additional advocate general to compare the report with ongoing process of excavation done by the state government and file a comprehensive report touching upon various aspects including possible age and natural materials unearthed so far.

