Earliest iron use found in India? Tamil Nadu digs spark debate

For over 20 years, historians in India’s southeastern state of Tamil Nadu have been discovering clues to the country’s ancient history.

Their digs have uncovered early scripts that rewrite literacy timelines, mapped maritime trade routes connecting India to the world and revealed advanced urban settlements – reinforcing the state’s role as a cradle of early civilisation and global commerce.

They have then discovered yet more recent proof of what might have been the earliest uses and production of iron. One of the earliest known places where iron was collected, extracted, and forged on a major level around the 13th century BC is present-day Turkey.

Scientists have discovered metal items at six locations in Tamil Nadu, dating up to 2,953–3,345 BCE, or between 5,000 to 5,400 centuries old. This suggests that the process of extracting, smelting, forging and shaping iron to create equipment, weapons and other items may have developed separately in the Indian subcontinent.

Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, a professor of South Asian antiquities at Cambridge University, says,” The discovery is of such a great significance that it will take some more time before its relevance drop in.”

The latest studies from Adichchanallur, Sivagalai, Mayiladumparai, Kilnamandi, Mangadu and Thelunganur websites have made regional stories like as” Did the Iron Age Begin in Tamil Nadu? ” The time marks a time when societies began using and producing metal frequently, making tools, weapons and facilities.

At the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research ( ISSER ), professor of archaeology Parth R Chauhan urges caution before drawing broad conclusions. He thinks that iron systems “probably developed independently in a number of areas.”

Additionally, “earliest evidence is uncertain because numerous regions of the world have not been adequately researched or historical evidence is known but has not been properly dated.”

According to Mr. Chauhan, the Tamil Nadu discovery would undoubtedly be among the world’s earliest records if more academic research was conducted to validate it. The find” suggests parallel developments [in iron production ] across different parts of the world,” according to Oishi Roy, an archaeologist at the Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ).

Meteoretic and smelted copper came in two different types. Smelted metal, extracted from ore, marked the real beginning of iron systems with large creation. Nine circular beads, the earliest known copper artefacts, were created from meteoritic iron, which is produced by falling comets.

Discovering iron-bearing rocks is the first problem. These metals may be smelted in a burner at extremely high temperatures again found to remove the steel. Without this method, organic metal remains locked within the stone. After recovery, experienced ironsmiths shape the material into tools and implements, marking a critical step in beginning ironworking.

The majority of the sites in Tamil Nadu where copper has been discovered are old habitation areas close to modern villages. According to archaeologists K Rajan and R Sivanantham, excavators have so far discovered a small number of Iron Age graves, some of which have sarcophagi ( stone coffins ) and other significant iron artifacts. In the process, they uncovered hoe-spades, weapons, swords, spears, chisels, axes and weapons made of iron.

At tombs excavated at one page, over 85 metal objects- knives, archer, rings, chisels, axes and swords- were found inside and outside cremation urns. More than 20 essential samples were strongly dated in five labs global, confirming their ancient.

Some considers are particularly impressive.

An iron sword from a cremation page, made of ultra-high-carbon material and dating to the 13th to 15th centuries BC, is a crucial revelation, according to historian Osmund Bopearachchi of the Paris-based French National Centre for Scientific Research.

This innovative material, a direct creation of Iron Age metals, required powerful information and specific high-temperature processes.

“We know that the first signs of real steel production date back to the 13th Century BC in present-day Turkey. The radiometric dates seem to prove that the Tamil Nadu samples are earlier,” he said. Ms Roy adds that the early steel in Tamil Nadu indicates the people there “were iron makers, not just users – a technologically advanced community evolving over time”.

Likewise, in a blog called Kodumanal, tractors found a furnace, pointing to an innovative iron-making area.

The oven area stood out with its bright discolouration, probably from extreme heat. Excavators close by discovered iron ash, some of which had been fused to the burner wall, giving rise to sophisticated metalworking techniques. It is obvious that the people who lived there were constantly producing and processing copper.

To be sure, the Tamil Nadu excavations are not the first in India to uncover iron. At least 27 sites across eight states have revealed evidence of early iron use, some dating back 4,200 years. The latest Tamil Nadu digs pushes back the antiquity of Indian iron by another 400 years,” archaeologist Rajan, who has co-authored a paper on the subject, told me.

” The Iron Age is a technical move, hardly a single-origin occasion- it develops in multiple places individually,” says Ms Roy, noting earlier discoveries in eastern, western and northern India.

” What’s clear now,” she adds, “is that indigenous iron technology developed early in the Indian subcontinent. “

According to experts, the excavations in Tamil Nadu have significant potential to reshape our knowledge of the Iron Age and iron smelting on the Indian subcontinent. Also, “what these digs testify is to the existence of a distinctly sophisticated style of civilisation,” notes Nirmala Lakshman, author of The Tamils- A Portrait of a Community.

Archaeologists are cautioned, however, that there are still insufficient excavations to gather fresh data from all over India. According to one expert,” Indian archaeology is in silent mode outside of Tamil Nadu.” “

Katragadda Paddayya, a leading Indian archaeologist, said this was” just the starting point”.

” We need to delve deeper into the origins of iron technology- these findings mark the beginning, not the conclusion. The key is to use this as a premise, follow the steps backward, and find the locations where iron production actually got its start. “