Bharatbarsha

Arockiaraj Johnbosco | TNN |  May 29, 2016, 11.52 PM IST MADURAI: With structure after structure surfacing from under the soil, the massive scale of an ancient urban centre that lies buried at Pallisanthai Thidal in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu is emerging. The second phase of the work undertaken by excavation branch VI, Bangalore, of the Archaeological Survey of India suggests that the settlement at Keeladi village could be as large as the ones in Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. The excavations reveal a well-built urban centre with many amenities. After exploration works on the Vaigai riverbed in 2013-14, the office of the superintending archaeologist, excavation branch VI in Bangalore, shortlisted Keeladi village for excavation. The first phase of the study carried out in 2015 unearthed various antiquities, iron implements and earthenware, both foreign and locally made. The pot shreds of Arretine dating back to 3 BC proved foreign trade existed in the region during the pe

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey | TNN |  May 29, 2016, 01.37 AM IST KOLKATA: It may be time to rewrite history textbooks. Scientists from IIT-Kharagpur and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have uncovered evidence that the Indus Valley Civilization is at least 8,000 years old, and not 5,500 years old, taking root well before the Egyptian (7000BC to 3000BC) and Mesopotamian (6500BC to 3100BC) civilizations. What's more, the researchers have found evidence of a pre-Harappan civilization that existed for at least 1,000 years before this. The discovery, published in the prestigious 'Nature' journal on May 25, may force a global rethink on the timelines of the so-called 'cradles of civilization'. The scientists believe they also know why the civilization ended about 3,000 years ago — climate change. "We have recovered perhaps the oldest pottery from the civilization. We used a technique called 'optically stimulated luminescence' to date pottery sha