Did Tamil Nadu start India’s iron age?

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin claimed the iron age began on “Tamil soil.”

• The State Archaeology Department’s report, ‘Antiquity of Iron: Recent radiometric dates from Tamil Nadu’, suggests that cultural zones north of Vindhyas experienced the copper age, indicating that those in the south might have entered the iron age already.

• Target-oriented excavations have been conducted across places such as Sivagalai, Adichanallur, Kilnamandi, and Mayiladumparai to understand Tamil Nadu’s iron age.

• Materials found suggest that iron smelting in India could have begun as early as the 16th century BCE.

• Excavations at Uttar Pradesh, where iron artefacts, furniture, and tuyeres were found, suggest that iron smelting and manufacturing of iron artefacts were well known in the eastern Vindhyas.

• The iron age in Tamil Nadu is believed to have been in use in the Central Ganga Plain at least from the early second millennium BC.