THE two important collections which form the subject of this catalogue were brought together as the result of excavations conducted by Mr. A. Rea, formerly Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India, Southern Circle, and are exhibited in an extension of the Prehistoric Gallery of the Madras Government Museum which was specially erected for their accommodation. Mr. Rea, for some time prior to his retirement from the service of Government in October 1913, was placed on special duty in connection with the archaeological collections in the Museum, and the present catalogue is one of the results of his work.
By far the more extensive of the two finds is that from Adichanallur and other localities in the Tinnevelly or most southern district of the Madras Presidency. The Adichanallur site was first brought to notice in 1876, when it was visited by Dr. Jagor of Berlin, who secured a considerable number of articles for the Berlin Museum fur Volkerkunde. Further explorations were conducted in the winter of 1903-1904, by M. Louis Lapicque of Paris, which resulted in additional collections, and as a result of their examination M. Lapicque arrived at the conclusion that the remains belonged to a Proto-Dravidian race. A detailed investigation of the sites was conducted by Mr. Rea, at intervals from 1899 to 1905, when the present collection and a large number of duplicates were obtained. While admitting that the burial-grounds might be of great antiquity, Mr. Rea was on the whole disposed to think that they were of Pandyan origin and might even have been in use after the commencement of the Christian era.
The burial-ground at Adichanallur covers an area of one hundred and fourteen acres and is the most extensive yet discovered in South India. The funeral urns were deposited either singly, or more rarely in pairs, in pits excavated in the solid rock or in the gravelly soil. In most cases only a selection of bones appears to have been interred, and as there are no evidences of cremation it seems probable that only portions of the body were placed in each urn, a theory which is supported by the small size of many of the latter and the narrowness of their mouths.
The burial urns and other articles of pottery which constitute the majority of the objects found at Adichanalltur, do not appear to differ in any important respect from similar finds made in various other South Indian localities. Many of the smaller vessels, some of which it may be remarked closely resemble objects of prehistoric pottery found in Egypt (of. v. Bissing, Sitzgsb. d. Konigl. Bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch. philos.-philol. u. hist. Kl., Jahrg. 1911, 6 Abh.) exhibit a characteristic red and black polished surface, which was the result of friction and not of a true fused glaze. The smaller articles consist for the most part of ordinary domestic utensils, together with stands of various kinds on which the vessels requiring support were placed. Comparatively little applied decoration is found and that practically confined to the large urns. The domestic utensils were found both in the interior of the urns and outside them, and as many contained rice husks they were perhaps originally receptacles for grain intended to serve as food for the spirits of the dead.
The most interesting of the Tinnevelly finds are, how-ever, the objects in metal, as they exist in great variety, a considerable amount of skill has been exercised in their manufacture, and many are of hitherto unknown design. The majority are of iron, but a fair number occur in bronze, and the uses to which some of the more complicated articles were put are still somewhat conjectural. The only objects discovered in any of the precious metals are oval frontlets of gold leaf, which were probably tied round the forehead in the case of certain of the dead, possibly those of rank or importance.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist