Tamil film directors Ameer, Karu. Palaniappan and S.P. Jananathan, who visited Keezhadi near here on Monday, appealed to the Central and State governments to continue archaeological excavation at the site and establish a museum there to preserve and exhibit the unearthed artefacts.
Stating that they decided to visit the place after hearing that the trenches dug up for excavation work were being closed by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Mr. Ameer said, “According to the ASI, the excavation work in these trenches is over and they had to be closed to preserve the structures inside.”
“However, there is no clarity on when excavations will resume as they themselves acknowledge that it could be carried out only in a small fraction of the planned area of around 100 acres so far since the lands belonged to individuals” he added.
Mr. Palaniappan said the government should act immediately to acquire the entire area after adequately compensating the farmers, who owned the lands, and allow the excavation to continue.
“Thousands of acres of land are acquired for industries and roads. This is far more important than that,” he said.
On the proposal to take the excavated artefacts to Mysore for preservation, Mr. Palaniappan said they were not opposing it due to language chauvinism or animosity towards Karnataka.
Referring to the urban settlement that had been discovered at Keezhadi, he said, “The artefacts speak about the Tamil civilisation that thrived more than 2,000 years back. Hence, the people here should have easy access to them.”
The directors said if the government had difficulties in acquiring two acres of land for the museum, they were willing to raise the fund to purchase the land.
