Sarcophagus redraws Harappan age south-north trade map

Smoke from a funeral pyre over 3,700 years ago left behind a trail of charcoal. That faint trace, sealed inside a terracotta sarcophagus buried in Kilnamandi village of Tiruvannamalai district, has now rewritten Tamil Nadu's ancient past. Radiocarbon analysis in a US laboratory dated the deposit to 1692 BCE, placing this burial in the late Harappan age and hinting at trade links between southern India and regions as far away as Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Burial offerings scattered around the stone coffin tell their own story. Etched carnelian beads, once prized in Harappan centres, lay beside graffiti-inscribed potsherds. "Carnelian beads were available in Maharashtra and Gujarat regions. So, it clearly establishes a trade contact with the north during the later Harappan period," said K Rajan, professor and academic adviser to Tamil Nadu State Dept of Archaeology (TNSDA).

Harappan or Indus Valley Civilization is generally dated between 3300 BCE and 1300 BCE. Rajan said the new dating also pushes TN's graffiti tradition further back. "The grave goods contain graffiti-bearing pots, which indirectly places the date of the graffiti marks in TN to the 17th century BCE," he said. Symbols carved onto the shoulders of the pots include fork-like shapes, semi-concentric circles in a U-formation, and vertical strokes with wavering lines superimposed.

Excavators G Victor Gnanaraj and M Suresh said in their field report that some graffiti appeared restricted to specific burials, suggesting they could belong to members of the same clan.

A larger study by Rajan and TNSDA joint director R Sivanandam examined 140 archaeological sites and found striking parallels between TN graffiti and markings at Indus Valley locations - nearly 90% shared similarities. "The AMS date of the sarcophagus gives authenticity to our study on graffiti marks," Sivanandam said.

Objects unearthed at Kilnamandi, including iron tools and pottery finds, add to the picture of a complex society. State archaeology minister Thangam Thennarasu released on Saturday this AMS-dating result, one among 139 scientific dates collated by the department, alongside preliminary excavation reports at Keeladi near Madurai.