Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/36



AUTHORS OF EARLY TAMIL CULTURE 25 some belonging to different ages. These things included spears, javelins, arrow heads, knives, sickles, spears, and spades, both of stone and iron. Some of them were provided with wooden handles. The pottery objects have been alluded to and skulls have been brought to light. Bronze ornaments and implements, beads, mica pieces, husks of rice and millet in pots, and some gold ornaments such as a diadem in Adicchanallur have been found inside the various urns and tombs (Ar. S. of India, 1902-3 pp. 111-140). While animals were represented in pottery in the Nilgiris, the art of casting animals in bronze was seen at Adicchanallur. The domesticated animals thus represented are the buffalo, goat or sheep and cock. The wild ones are the tiger, elephant and antelope. The Adicchanallur culture was the transitional plane of culture which included a knowledge of agriculture as seen from iron spades, sickles, husks of rice and millet, a knowledge of weaving from small cloth pieces, of pottery made of well seasoned clay and baked and of an extensive metal working. Bronze and copper are rare while plenty of iron is in use. If we proceed to examine the contents of a few probably later caves, there is seeming anachronism. The lapsis cylindrical beads of very early times are found mixed with coins dated 100 to 200 A.D. in the Kistna District. In a megalithic grave-Sulur, Coimbatore District-there is a coin of Eran struck dating in the 2nd century or 3rd century B.C. In another grave Tangal, Chingleput District--we have iron fish-hooks,