Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/33

22 ﻿culture, the potter's art had attained a high stage of perfection both in beauty and form. Much interest is attached to the vases which are closely parallel with the Egyptian, Greek and Etruscan ceramic wares. We have numerous neolithic vessels with several legs which are exactly similar to the vessels found in the ruins of Troy. Again the terra cotta sarcophagi discovered in Pallavaram bears resemblance to certain terra cotta coffins found near Baghdad, as also with Etruscan terra cotta coffins.

Intimately connected with the pottery are the types of burial in South India, another unshakable evidence of the unity of South Indian culture. Five types of burial seem recognizable.

1. Large urn or jar burials found in the Wynaad and Adichanallur: Here we have pottery coming into use in large measure. Some of these urns are so large as to admit the whole body. There is no sign of cremation and the skull evidences the dolichocephalic tribe primarily while the Tinnevelly urns were found full to the top with pots and other objects, and were also surrounded with objects. The urns in the Wynaad sites contained two or three pots and no surrounding objects. The fabric of the pots was red inside and brightly polished. What is more remarkable is that the Puṛanānūru, an accredited Sangam work, refers to the jar burial in four different places (Puṛam 228, 1. 12; 238, 1. 256; 364, 1. 10).

2. Legged urns: These are pottery cists of varying sizes. In our city in a house named Fontenoy in