Chennai: An archaeology student from the University of Madras has unearthed two pre-historic sites at Chinnamalai in Malaipalayam village and Senjerimalai in Sulur near Coimbatore. The discovery includes a rock shelter adorned with red ochre geometric paintings, along with microlithic tools such as borers, thumbnail scrapers, and hammer stones at Chinnamalai, while Senjerimalai yielded stone tools and debitage.
Rare Find of Rock Art and Tools
Umamaheswari G, a postgraduate student in the ancient history and archaeology department at the University of Madras, who identified the sites during an archaeological exploration, stated, "It is rare to find the rock art with red ochre paintings and in-situ microlithic tools. The two hillocks were separated by just 1.4 km." She recovered 150 stone tools and seven stone tool artefacts from the area.
Typo-Technological Analysis
Jinu Koshy, excavation in charge from the same department, explained, "On the basis of typo-technological analysis we have identified stone tools such as a borer, thumbnail scrapers, a notched tool, and end scrapers." He further noted that the bipolar flaking technique is dominant and consistent with locally sourced quartz and crystal quartz nodules. Crystal quartz was preferentially selected for finer tools. A quartzite hammerstone recovered from the Senjerimalai cave bears clear battering marks on its striking edges. Fine-grained quartzite is entirely absent from the local bedrock geology, providing physical evidence that prehistoric people could have had contacts with other regions.
Regional Context
Archaeologist V Selvakumar, who excavated the neolithic site at Molapalayam near Coimbatore, mentioned that quartz microliths are common in shelters of the Coimbatore and Palakkad regions. "We have identified such microlithic sites at Maruthamalai, Walayar, Siruvani Falls, Bharathiyar University campus, Kumittipathi, and Thiruchengode," he added.
Historical Significance
Both hillocks carry a documented medieval history. J Soundararajan, associate professor and head of the department of ancient history and archaeology at the University of Madras, noted, "The Mandhiragiri Velayudhaswamy temple at Senjerimalai bears a Hoysala inscription dated to 1339 CE, recording renovations by the Hoysala chieftain, with the original structure attributed to Karikala Chola. The Sundararaja Perumal temple at Chinnamalai dates to the Nayak period." Experts emphasized that further investigations are needed to assign the period in which the tools and rock paintings were created.
