Close on the heels of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) raising doubts about dating the antiquity of the excavations at the ancient site of Keezhadi near Madurai in Tamil Nadu, BJP leader and Union Minister for Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday maintained that further scientific validation was required for the report on the Keezhadi findings to be accepted by the government.

“As further scientific validation is required to ascertain the period of the artefacts found at the site there is a delay in accepting the report,” was his response to a question at a media interaction at the BJP headquarters in Chennai. He was here to participate in the celebration of the 11-year rule of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. “Due recognition will be accorded to the Keezhadi findings for which more scientific tests are required to ascertain the timeline over which doubts have been raised by experts,” the minister said, making it clear that the Union government will take time and the report would have to wait till then.

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Earlier last month, ASI Director (Exploration) Hemsagar A Naik asked Amarnath Ramakrishna, under whose leadership the Keezhadi excavation was carried out, to revise the report by incorporating necessary corrections to proceed further. The chronological periods in the report on the excavated objects required proper nomenclature and re-orientation, Naik said and called for more justification of the time segments adding that this followed the suggestion by two experts. But a defiant Ramakrishna refused to rewrite and stood by his report, submitted in January 2023.

In his response to Naik, Ramakrishna said, “The view expressed by you regarding further examination is against the well-reasoned and conclusive findings of the excavation at the site. The chronology of Keezhadi excavation has been evaluated in accordance with standard archaeological procedures. Periodization of the site was reconstructed based on stratigraphic sequences, cultural deposits, material culture and AMS dating.”

Keezhadi excavation is significant in that it had unearthed an urban civilisation dating back to 8th to 5th BCE which possessed a script, preceding the Ashokan Brahmi. The Tamil Nadu government had built an onsite museum at Keezhadi, which continues to attract a steady stream of visitors.

Coupled with this is the next declaration by the state government, following the excavation at Sivagalai in the Thoothukudi district and other places including Mayiladumparai in Krishnagiri District, that the iron age commenced not in Anatolia, Turkiyie but in Tamil Nadu at BCE 3500. The Tamil Nadu Archeology Department had brought out ‘Keezhadi: Lap of Mother Tamil’ and ‘Antiquity of Iron’, which stand testimony to the antiquity of Tamils.