Tamil Nadu: In Keeladi dig, artefacts, history, heritage and politics

Since 2015, for several months every year close to a dozen archaeologists and labourers have been digging a 110-acre area of what was once a coconut farm.

One day in April, Periya Ganesan started work , the same way he had for the previous four days, sifting through the sediment and dirt in his assigned trench at the dig site.

Tamil Nadu: In Keeladi dig, artefacts, history, heritage and politics

It was tiring but significant work, the brass tacks that archaeology is built on but rarely spoken of in the final telling of discovery. Like some of the others on the site, this was Ganesan’s ninth year at the dig. Like every year, work started in early