Decorated Carnelian Beads from Sirudavoor

Decorated Carnelian Beads from Sirudavoor

By Ashvin Rajagopalan

After a brief rain spell over Chennai in mid June 2010, my friends and I decided to explore the Megalithic site at Sirudavoor near Thiruporur. Sirudavoor is a small village located 45 kilometers from Chennai in the Kanchipuram District. The Sirudavoor megalithic site is being destroyed by illegal sand quarrying and property development and is disappearing at an alarming rate. About 100 stone circles and dolmens have been destroyed in the last 12 months alone. The illegal sand miners are removing the stone circles for their granite value and the high quality sand and gravel is being sold as land fill and for agricultural purposes in the nearby towns. The quarrying is taking place right through the contents of every stone circle and hundreds of burials are being desecrated. During the quarrying some of the contents of the burials spill on to the ground. This is why visiting the site after the rains is very important as the spilt contents are washed and visible on the surface. My friends and I have been documenting such finds for the last three months.

Stone circles in the process of being destroyed by illegal sand quarrying

As individuals who are voluntarily researching this site and documenting what is being found, our legal rights at this site are very limited. The Sirudavoor Megalithic site is listed as a protected archaeological site by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This means that no one is allowed to excavate at this site without the direct permission of the Director of Archaeology. The amended Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 2010 states that illegal excavation or destruction of any protected site will lead to a fine of Rs.1,00,000 or a jail term of 2 years or both. Therefore, on our first visit after the rains, when we found a small group of decorated carnelian beads and banded agate beads on the surface, we photographed them and left them where we found them. However, after a lot of deliberation and consultations with retired archaeologists we decided to go back the next day, collect them, and hand them over to the ASI. As expected, when we went back the next day, the entire area where the beads were found was further quarried and the beads are now lost forever.

On a subsequent visit, three more beads were found which have now been handed over to the Superintendent of Archaeology, Chennai Circle, Ms. Sathyabama Badreenath. She has added them to the collection of artifacts with the ASI from the Sirudavoor excavations.

Decorated carnelian beads found on the surface.

The story of these Carnelian beads however is a fascinating one. Several questions arise. Who were the people who used these beads? Who made them? How did they get to Sirudavoor? How old are these beads? What were they used for? What can we learn from them?

The overall study of the Sirudavoor site reveals several interesting facts as to the life and culture of the people who inhabited this area over 2500 years ago. So far only burial sites have been found. There are over 750 stone circles and dolmens in an area of about 5 sq. km. They are divided into two groups on either sides of a lake. Both burials appear to originate around a small hillock and move towards the lake. There is no particular pattern that emerges as to the positioning of the stone circles. Work is currently underway to study the possibility that astronomic signs were used to orient the stone circles. There are preliminary indications that most dolmens have an East-West orientation.

Excavations have revealed some interesting aspects of the people who lived in Sirudavoor. Pottery was highly developed and many types have been documented. The burials use coarse terracotta sarcophaguses. Black Ware, Red Ware, Black & Red Ware & Red Slip Ware have been found in large quantities. A crucial piece of evidence is that so far only graffiti has been found on the pottery. Till date no Brahmi script has been found at the site. This allows for a reasonable conclusion that this site was in existence from around 800 BCE – 300 BCE. This site is extremely similar to megalithic sites in the Kodumanal area in Coimbatore District. Perhaps they were both connected.

This brings to focus the theory that the people of these megalithic sites could be called the Pandukal People (Leshnik 1974, Francis 2002). This theory suggests that the people who were buried in these stone circles shared a common ancestry that originated else where, perhaps outside Tamil Nadu. This is derived from the fact that remains of saddles and horse skeletal remains have been found in sites like Kodumanal & Porunthal. Horses are not indigenous to Tamil Nadu and probably came to South India from Persian traders over the centuries. Iron technology itself has an interesting timeline that shows that iron -age sites existed in the north of India hundreds of years before it came into existence in Tamil Nadu. Perhaps the Pandukal people moved further south in search of newer sources of iron. It is not known whether the Pandukal people integrated themselves with the indigenous populations of Tamil Nadu. Anthropological studies show that the people in the burials in Tamil Nadu may have varied ethnicities (V. Rami Reddy and B.K. Chandrasekhar Reddy, 2004). The most interesting fact (Dikshit, 1949) is that the patterns on the etched carnelian beads are markers of the Pandukal people. The patterns found on the etched carnelian beads in Sirudavoor could probably help trace the established trade and cultural routes in Tamil Nadu.

Different patterns on Etched Carnelian Beads found on the surface at Sirudavoor. 9 – 11 mm

Working backwards, we know that these carnelian beads were finally laid to rest along with the ritualistic remains of human beings in these megalithic burials around 800 BCE – 300 BCE (iron age) in now what is the small village of Sirudavoor. As these beads were not found by means of systematic excavation it is not possible to ascertain their orientation and co-relation to other objects in a burial site. The beads are however usually found next to broken sarcophaguses and there is always a presence of iron fragments next to them as well as black ware and black and red ware shards.

So where did these decorated carnelian beads come from? To begin with, there are no known carnelian deposits anywhere in Tamil Nadu. It is now known that the closest area where this semi precious stone is found is in northern Karnataka. It is also very commonly found in the Narmada valley in Gujarat. There is no evidence of a bead making site at Sirudavoor. The closest known bead making site at that time was Kodumanal. So how did these beads get here from so far away? This story however, goes even further.

The area around Sirudavoor is rich in iron ore deposits. Many megalithic sites in Tamil Nadu, like Kodumanal, are known to have processed iron and made iron implements. As of date no one has found any evidence of a furnace or crucible in the Thiruporur/Sirudavoor area. A probable theory is that the people in this site traded this raw iron ore for finished iron products elsewhere in the country. Due to Sirudavoor’s proximity to the sea, these people could have been salt & fish traders. Therefore, the people in this megalithic site could have taken the mined iron ore, salt & preserved fish inland towards other sites like Kodumanal in the Coimbatore district where sea salt would have been in demand. The Sirudavoor people probably traded their goods for finished iron implements and beads.

This however does not solve the question of where the Carnelian beads came from. Kodumanal was known to be a processing center for Carnelian, Quartz, Garnet and Beryl amongst to most popular and Amethyst, Lapiz & Agate were in lesser quantities. Agate and Lapiz came from Gujarat and Afghanistan respectively. The technique to etch the carnelian beads was not indigenous to this area. The carnelian blanks could have been made in Kodumanal but the etching process was done elsewhere. This meant that rough carnelian traveled from Gujarat to Kodumanal and back as a polished bead to Gujarat where they were then etched and sent back to Kodumanal and other places for trade.

A brief history of decorated carnelian beads The earliest known decorated carnelian beads were dated to be from the Indus Valley & Harrappan excavations (2400 BCE - 1800 BCE). They next appear in megalithic sites around India (800 BCE - 500 AD) and later are found in Persia, Rome and even Russia (100BCE - 600 AD). However the etched carnelian beads found after 500 AD - 1000 AD are said to be mostly of Persian origin where till today the same technique is used.

What does finding Decorated Carnelian Beads in Sirudavoor mean? The Sirudavoor site till date, in excavations, only produced banded agate beads and decorated carnelian beads. This is a very unique indicator. This means that glass beads were yet to be introduced to this population. This allows allowing us to speculate that this site lost its trade contacts after 300 BCE or that it ran out of iron ore by this time and therefore moved on to another site. Sirudavoor is extremely closely located to several other megalithic sites. Arikamedu is 100 Kilometers from this site. Amritamangalam is about 35 Kilometers from this site. There are a few megalithic burials in the Chengalpet district which are about 30 kilometers away from Sirudavoor. Perhaps these people migrated to those sites?

Perhaps then we can theorize that the people from Sirudavoor, traveled to the Kodumanal sites around Coimbatore where they traded their iron ore and sea salt. In exchange they purchased these decorated carnelian beads and finished iron implements which would have been regarded as precious to them. Meanwhile, the people from the Kodumanal areas were taking this iron to trade with the Persians through Gujarat. It is known that since 500 BCE, Tamil Nadu became popular for the manufacture of Wootz (urukku) steel. This steel later came to be known as Damascus steel. This therefore meant that the beads were also moving back and forth between Persia, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

It is amazing to think that the ancient people of Sirudavoor had an active economy with knowledge of trade and far away places. There would have been clearly established trade routes with horses as the chief mode of transport. From the evidence in the burials, Iron implements and Carnelian beads were considered extremely important. Perhaps these beads were considered the equivalent of currency in ancient times before coins were minted.

Micro Etched Carnelian Beads found at Sirudavoor. 2 – 5 mm