Keezhadi excavation site
Excavation blocks at Keezhadi | |
| Alternative name | Vaigai valley civilization |
|---|---|
| Location | Keezhadi, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Region | Thiruppuvanam, Sivaganga |
| Coordinates | 9°51′47″N 78°10′56″E / 9.8630727°N 78.1820931°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| Area | 32.37 ha (80.0 acres) |
| History | |
| Founded | 580 BCE – 200 BCE |
| Cultures | Sangam period |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 2015–present |
| Archaeologists | Amarnath Ramakrishna |
| Management | Archaeological Survey of India, Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department |
| Public access | Yes |
Keezhadi, or Keeladi, is a Sangam period settlement site, where excavation are carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology. This site is located near the town of Keezhadi in Sivaganga district, Tamil Nadu, about 12 km southeast of Madurai. The settlement lies on the bank of the Vaigai River and it reflects the ancient culture of Tamil Nadu. Epigraphist V. Vedachalam, who served as a domain expert for the excavation, dated the excavated remains between 6th century BCE and 3rd century BCE. However, the claimed dating of Tamil-Brahmi potsherd inscriptions to pre-3rd century BCE has been questioned due to lack of detailed information in the published reports, and because of disturbances in the stratigraphy of the site — with many potsherds retrieved from mixed contexts of an ancient rubbish-dump cut as a large pit into deeper, older layers — making it doubtful whether any Tamil-Brahmi findings were from the same age as the dated charcoal samples, and the site remained occupied till the 1st century CE.