Ancient burial urn with skeleton bones discovered in Tiruppur, Tennessee, while building a road

On Thursday, September 14, workmen constructing a road for pipeline installation operations in Tiruppur city discovered a burial urn (Mudhumakkal Thazhi) containing skeleton bones.

Ancient burial urn dating back to more than 2000 years, was found during the digging for pipeline laying work in the heart of Tiruppur city.

Dr. K. King Narcissus, a former head of the government homoeopathic doctors association, told TNIE, “I saw a group of workers, who were engaged in digging land for pipeline laying works near my house in Kuppusamypuram talking about a pot they had found. I examined the pot and suspected it could be an ancient burial urn. Following this, I told them to stop work and informed the media and councillors.”

The Virarajendran Archaeological and Historical Research Centre's (VAHRC) Director, S. Ravikumar, confirmed the development by stating that “Kuppusamy Puram, Kottai Mariamman Temple and KSC school grounds were important places in ancient times. In 2014, six burial urns were found in the playground of KSC Government School. This new discovery is just 300 m from the old site. I believe more urns will be discovered here.” After inspecting the location, Tiruppur City Commissioner Pavankumar Giriyappanar stated that the urns would be brought to the treasury office.

A group of archaeologists from Coimbatore examined the urn in the interim. R. Jeyapriya, the archaeologist in charge of the Coimbatore region, told TNIE that “the size of the urn is very large and it contained skull and bones. Also, we found small pieces of broken pottery around the urn. We believe the urn is more than 2,000 years old.”

Sources claim that the urns discovered in 2014 at KSC Government School contained grains, rice bran, bones, and skulls. But they weren't delivered for a scientific examination. The urns are kept in the government museum in Karur. According to several sources, carbon analysis of comparable materials from burial urns suggested that they could be older than 2,000 years. These urns are kept in Madurai Kamaraj University's collection and archive. Urn burials were used by ancient Tamils before the third century AD, according to topic specialists. Tamils began cremating the deceased after the third century AD.