Steps are being taken to bring back over 5,000 artefacts that were excavated in Adichanallur, in Thoothukudi district, but were taken to foreign museums in the past, Union Minister for Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone for the museum in Adichanallur on Saturday, Ms. Sitharaman said the excavation in the ‘parambu’ in Adichanallur had yielded several 3,400-year-old burial urns, containing the remains of people from all walks of life, as well as clothes, drinking water, jewels, foodgrains like rice, millets etc., all of which had been placed inside the urns as a mark of respect for the dead.
While the artefacts being unearthed from this site would be showcased in the world-class museum to come up at Adichanallur with sufficient funding of the Centre, the 5,000-odd artefacts taken either legally or illegally to various foreign museums would be brought back to this museum, as steps had already been initiated in this direction, she said.
