Copper utensils of Chalcolithic Age found in Attappady

They were found by a labourer while digging near the banks of the Kodumkarapallam river

When Rajan, a labourer from Goolikkadavu in Attappady, took two old copper utensils to a shop at Anakkatty on Saturday for sale, he had little idea that he was carrying two pieces of antiquity with potential to throw light on a glorious riparian civilisation that existed in Attappady.

The shopkeeper, curious about the recent discoveries of historical relics from different places of Attappady, soon alerted the Sholayur panchayat officials. The civic team led by panchayat president P. Ramamurthy and councilor Radhakrishna Kurup took possession of the utensils and sought the help of archaeologists to date them.

A preliminary investigation done by some archaeologists found that the utensils belonged to Chalcolithic Age or Copper Age, which is widely being considered a transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

According to N. Ganesan, archaeologist from Houston University, the stemmed copper bowl and the copper pot appeared ancient and most probably belonged to the Chalcolithic Age, which in India was considered to be around 200 BC.

P.J. Cherian, archaeologist who was in the forefront of the Pattanam excavations, said that they belonged to the Chalcolithic Age, but needed closer examination.

K. Rajan, historian and senior scholar in archaeology from SNGS College, Pattambi, said that the utensils were a discovery of immense value. “I have not found anything of this kind from this region. We need to study them closer,” he said. Mr. Rajan had made several megalithic findings in recent years from regions in Palakkad district.

Panchayat president Mr. Ramamurthy said that the labourer had found the copper utensils while digging near the banks of the Kodumkarapallam river or Anakkatty river. “That’s why we grew more suspicious about them,” he said.