NAGAPATTINAM: A team of archaeologists stumbled upon the basement of a Chola period temple and a megalithic urn at two different locations during the ongoing series of excavations at Thalachankadu village near Poompuhar on Wednesday. Poompuhar remained a flourishing port town during the Chola period. A large number of Chola period artifacts have been unearthed in the villages around Poompuhar in the past few decades.
On the orders of Commissioner of Archaeology CP Singh and Thanjavur Region Assistant Director Arjunan, a team of archaeologists led by Muthusamy, Curator of the Archaeological Museum in Tarangambadi has been carrying out excavations in villages around Poompuhar for the past few weeks. A couple of weeks ago, at Thalachankadu village, the team unearthed some idols, necklaces, bangles, bricks, cups and containers.
Two stone inscriptions were also unearthed at a depth of about 13 feet. These findings suggested the possibility of the existence of a Chola period temple in the vicinity. Muthusamy said that at a depth of 5 feet, a big structure, probably a temple basement was found. Upon studying the present findings in the light of the inscriptions found in the locality in the past, it is believed that the temple could have been the one built by Paranthaka Chola (907 to 955 AD)," said Muthusamy. At the same village, in the excavations carried out near the pond of Dhakshinapuriswarar temple, a megalithic urn (300 BC to 100 AD) was unearthed.Stating that the excavations will continue for 10 more days, Muthusamy said the Thalachankadu excavations were throwing up exciting results. The excavations carried out in the recent past at the nearby Melaperumpallam and Vanagiri, lend credence to the belief that the area around Poompuhar had been flourishing during the Chola period, he said.
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