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A team of archaeologists in southern India has unearthed an approximately 2,300-year-old terracotta sarcophagus in Pallavaram, located 15 miles from the city of Chennai. “The nearly intact, handmade, oblong coffin is an important discovery,” says A.M.V. Subramanyam, superintending archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Chennai. An almost identical sarcophagus was found 130 years ago in the same area. The 1888 find was the first artifact to establish the existence of a distinctive Iron Age culture in this region. Researchers from the ASI will soon perform thermoluminescence dating to determine the sarcophagus’ exact age.
