The Archaeological Survey of India has directed archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna to resubmit his report on the Keeladi excavations after making corrections suggested by two experts, The Hindu reported on Thursday.

Ramakrishna, who led the discovery of the Sangam-era site near Madurai, had submitted more than two years ago the 982-page report detailing the first two phases of the excavation.

Political debate about Keeladi

Keeladi has been at the centre of a political debate in recent years.

Ramakrishna, who led the two excavation phases at Keeladi between 2014 and 2016, had unearthed more than 5,500 artefacts pointing to an urban civilisation in Tamil Nadu during the Sangam era. The Sangam era is the period between 3rd century before common era to the 3rd century common era in southern India.

In 2017, the Archaeological Survey of India transferred Ramakrishna to Assam. Political parties had described this move as “unusual” at the time, The New Indian Express reported.

The discovery had attracted widespread attention and Ramakrishna’s transfer was viewed as an attempt to downplay the excavation’s significance, according to The Hindu.

The government agency carried out the third phase of the excavation. But it announced in 2017 that no significant findings had emerged and halted the excavation.

The decision was criticised by politicians in Tamil Nadu, who accused the Union government of attempting to suppress evidence of an ancient Tamil civilisation, according to The Hindu.

However, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court asked the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology to take over the excavation, the Deccan Herald reported. The eleventh phase of excavation will take place in June.

About 20,000 artefacts have been recovered from Keeladi since 2014.

In the report submitted in 2023, Ramakrishna – who is now the director of antiquities – relied on accelerator mass spectrometry dating of 23 artefacts, which determined that they were from around 300 CE, the Deccan Herald reported.

Using this data, he established the chronological span of the Keeladi site to be between 8th century BC and 3rd century CE.

Changes recommended

In a letter on Wednesday, Archaeological Survey of India’s Director (Exploration and Excavation) HA Naik informed Ramakrishna that two experts had recommended corrections to his draft report to make it “more authentic”, the Deccan Herald reported.

The letter noted that the classification of the three cultural periods needed clearer nomenclature or reorientation, and that the proposed timeline – 8th century BCE to 5th century BCE – required “concrete justification”.

The Archaeological Survey of India also flagged gaps in the report’s documentation, according to The Hindu. The government agency said that referencing only the depth of artefacts was not adequate and that layer numbers were necessary for “consistent” comparison.

It further noted that several maps, including the village layout, were unclear, and key components like plates, contour maps, stratigraphic illustrations and trench layout plans were either absent or needed refinement, the newspaper added.

Former Indian Administrative Services officer R Balakrishnan, author of Journey of a Civilisation: Indus to Vaigai, described the Archaeological Survey of India’s move as unprecedented and likely driven by the “pressure of history”, The Hindu reported.

Balakrishnan said that the government agency’s approach to southern archaeology had consistently been lacking.

“We have been seeing a clear bias,” The Hindu quoted him as saying. “In a multicultural country like India, history requires careful and responsible handling.”

Also read: Debating whether Tamil Nadu’s Keeladi is Harappan or pre-Harappan is pointless, says archaeologist