When Rajan, a labourer from Goolikkadavu in Attappady, took two old copper utensils to a shop at Anakkatty on Saturday for sale, he had little idea that he was carrying two pieces of antiquity with potential to throw light on a glorious riparian civilisation that existed in Attappady.
The shopkeeper, curious about the recent discoveries of historical relics from different places of Attappady, soon alerted the Sholayur panchayat officials. The civic team led by panchayat president P. Ramamurthy and councilor Radhakrishna Kurup took possession of the utensils and sought the help of archaeologists to date them.
A preliminary investigation done by some archaeologists found that the utensils belonged to Chalcolithic Age or Copper Age, which is widely being considered a transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
According to N. Ganesan, archaeologist from Houston University, the stemmed copper bowl and the copper pot appeared ancient and most probably belonged to the Chalcolithic Age, which in India was considered to be around 200 BC.
P.J. Cherian, archaeologist who was in the forefront of the Pattanam excavations, said that they belonged to the Chalcolithic Age, but needed closer examination.
K. Rajan, historian and senior scholar in archaeology from SNGS College, Pattambi, said that the utensils were a discovery of immense value. “I have not found anything of this kind from this region. We need to study them closer,” he said. Mr. Rajan had made several megalithic findings in recent years from regions in Palakkad district.
Panchayat president Mr. Ramamurthy said that the labourer had found the copper utensils while digging near the banks of the Kodumkarapallam river or Anakkatty river. “That’s why we grew more suspicious about them,” he said.
A.D. Manikandan, a scholar in economics, had found innumerable archaeological remains from the banks of the Bhavani river, the Siruvani river, and the Kodumkarapallam river during his post-doctoral studies among the tribes of Attappady.
Among his discoveries were stone tools, caves, menhirs, cists, stone circles, urn burials, black and red ware pottery, terracotta images, stone carvings, and granite inscriptions. “They could throw light on the prehistoric settlements that flourished along the banks of the rivers in Attappady,” said Dr. Manikandan.
Several relics were found destroyed by the people, who cared the least for Attappady’s past. Although there were dozens of granite menhirs as tall as 20 feet, only a few have been left.
“What surprised me is that this tribal land known only for its sufferings, exploitation and land-grabbing has had a marvelous civilisation to boast,” said Dr. Manikandan.
Cist burial sites and shards of black and red pottery were found widely scattered on both sides of the Kodumkarapallam, a river that borders Kerala and Tamil Nadu in Attappady.
