cairns and barrows of the Nilgiris, on the other hand, have yielded bronze bowls similar to those found at Nimrud (Assyria) and Wan (Armenia). All these finds point to trade relations by sea which are also proved by the Indian names of articles imported into Egypt, Palestine (e.g. Solomon's expedition to Ophir=Sopara near Bombay), Syria and Assyria. The more regrettable it is that all literary evidence is missing and that the history of the famous śamgam Age (generally dated c. 300 B.C.-A.D. 300) of Tamil literature remains shadowy, and that only in the second half of the first millennium of the Christian era can we first tread on firm historical ground. VII. Prehistoric Antiquities Ādichanallūr in Tirunelveli District, in the extreme south of India, is the most ancient site yet unearthed in Southern India. A great deal more remains to be excavated. What one of the earlier writers on the Ādichanallūr finds, ALEXANDER REA, has to say in his book, Catalogue of Prehistoric Antiquities of Ādichanallūr and Perumābir, Madras, Government Press, Madras, 1915, pages 1 to 6, is most revealing about the scope for Archaeology in the South. THE SITE AT Ādichanalūr1 stands on the right bank of the Tambaraparni river, about two miles west of the town of Srivaikuntam in the Tinnevelly District. It was first brought to notice in 1876, when it was visited by Dr. Jagor of Berlin, accompanied by Mr. Stuart, the Acting Collector of Tinnevelly, and by the District Engineer. The Collector, in a letter to Government,2 said: "We commenced excavations in the side of a hill consisting chiefly of quartz gravel with boulders of the same material and resting on gneiss rock and within a superficial area of twenty-five or thirty square yards, we discovered from twenty to thirty baked earthen pots varying in size from three feet nine by three feet six down to ten inches either way, of very various shapes, and of shapes in most cases more elegant and of a better manufacture than any one sees at the present day in the bazaars. "These pots, when examined, were found to contain, besides ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1Vide Reports of the Archæological Survey, Southern Circle, for 1899-1900 to 1903-04, and of the Archæological Survey of India for 1902-03 and 1903-04. 2 Proceedings of the Madras Government, Public Department (No. 329 of 27th March 1876). |