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Situating megalithic burials in the Iron Age-Early Historic landscape of southern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Smriti Haricharan ,
Hema Achyuthan  and
N. Suresh
Smriti Haricharan
Affiliation:
1National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science campus, Bangalore 550 012, India (Author for correspondence, email: smriti.haricharan@gmail.com)
Hema Achyuthan
Affiliation:
2Department of Geology, Anna University, Sardar Patel Road, Guindy, Chennai 600 025, India (Email: hachyuthan@gmail.com)
N. Suresh
Affiliation:
3Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, 33 General Mahadeo Singh Road, Dehra Dun 248 001, India (Email: suresh_n@wihg.res.in)
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Abstract

The megalithic burials of southern India—a wonderfully varied set of monuments—have long needed a chronology and a context. Broadly contemporary with the Roman and Sasanian empires, these dolmens, cairns and cists have continually raised contradictions with their material contents. The authors attack the problem using luminescence applied to pottery at the site of Siruthavoor in north-east Tamilnadu. Although sharing material culture, this first pilot project gave dates ranging from 300 BC to AD 600, so exposing the problem and perhaps, in OSL, its long-term solution.

Keywords

southern IndiaTamilnaduSiruthavoorIron Age-Early Historicfirst millennium BCfirst millennium ADdolmensstone circlescairnscistsurn burialOSL
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 336 , 1 June 2013 , pp. 488 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2013

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