Sivagalai Excavation: History school teacher behind the Sivagalai Excavation

Sivagalai research: Excavation work started at Sivagalai in the Tuticorin district, which is considered to be older than Keeladi or more than 3000 years old. Sivanandam, deputy director of TNSDA today, May 26, started the excavation of Sivagalai with the government sanctioning Rs. 31 lakhs for it. The megalithic site of Sivagalai was known to the world only in 2017 when a local school history teacher found historic ancient pots in a burial ground in Sivagalai, similar to those found in Adichanallur.

Excavation at Sivagalai Village

For the first time, excavation work started in the Sivagalai village in Eral Taluk of Tuticorin district by TNSDA or Tamil Nadu State Department of Archeology. T. Thangadurai, an archeological officer, leads a team of ten researchers who will excavate the site. They started marking a 10 x 10 square meter area of the 2,000 megalithic sites of Sivaglai in the presence of M. Prabhakaran, the director of the Sivagalai excavation project.

Adichanallur and Sivagalai

Today the 6th excavation work at Adichanallur also started with the government sanctioning Rs. 28 lakhs for it. The previous five excavations from 1876, 1902, 1905, 2004, and 2005 have found that Adichanallur is the bedrock of our ancient culture. Sivagalai is between the old port town of Korkai and Adichanallur, which is only 10 km away from it. Korkai was the port even before the Tuticorin port, which disappeared due to natural disasters like tsunami and others a long time ago.

History school teacher behind the Sivagalai excavation

If not for a history teacher A. Manickam who works in a school in Vaikundam, the excavation would not have started in Sivagalai. On local people informing him of finding ancient pots in the megalithic site in Sivagalai, Manickam told the media TNSDA director T. Udaya Chandran, ASI, or Archeological Survey of India and the Madras High Court.

In February 2020, TNSDA, with support from archeological experts from Bangalore, conducted a radar survey of 500 sq m land in the burial site of Sivagalai Village. On their confirmation, excavation was to start in March. But due to the corona crisis, it was postponed to start today.

The excavation will continue in Sivagalai, where once the Thamairabarani river flowed until September. It may unearth more ancient arts crafts and many others to show the world how old and rich were our Tamil culture of starting civilizations on river beds with the best living conditions even some thousands of years ago.