'TN inhabited by people dissimilar to Tamils in pre-historic times'

Chandigarh (PTI): The south east coast of Tamil Nadu was inhabited in pre-historic times mainly by Caucasoids, Mongoloids, Negroids and Australoids rather than people similar to contemporary Tamils, a dental anthropological study has found.

A team of anthropologists came to the finding after studying more than 1,000 teeth from Adichanallur's pre-historic harbour site on the south-east coast of Tamil Nadu that dates back to 2,500 BC.

"Most of the teeth belonged to people of the four races and very few represented contemporary Tamil populations," a member of the study team Dr. P. Raghavan of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University at Canberra told PTI here on Sunday.

Optical microscope techniques were employed to study the teeth, which have shown the various growth stages, ageing and wearing processes, racial and ethnic and geographical affinities, dietary patterns, jaw mechanism, constitutional abnormalities of the jaws, pathological problems including the infections and inherited diseases, Dr. Raghavan said.

The other members of the study team were Dr. Gayatri Pathmanathan from the Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh and Dr T. Satyamurthy, Director, Academy of Archaeological Sciences of Ancient India, Chennai.

"Our study will be presented at an International Ancient Tamil Archaeological Research Conference to be held at Chennai from March 4-6," Dr. Raghavan told PTI.

Throwing more light on their study, Dr. Raghavan said that considerable number of cheek teeth or molars were found in different stages of tooth wear.

"In many cases, unequal tooth wear was observed on the left and right sides. Consuming hard food grains like pulses and nuts were the probable reasons for quick and heavy wearing along with the age factor," he said.

Many pathological conditions were observed on the jaws and teeth. "Some were genetically controlled while others resulted from malnutrition including lack of vitamins and essential minerals. No deficiency cases were reported due to lack of iron or calcium," Dr. Raghavan said.

Many cases, particularly relating to Negroid and Australoid skulls showed the mechanical removal of the upper central incisors by application of high force.

"Even today, such cultural practice can be seen among certain tribes of Africa and Australian Aborigines," he said.

According to Raghavan, the recovered skeletons showed many striking pathological and structural abnormalities, which were caused by a number of genetic variations, nutritional factors and bio-cultural alterations.

"A large number of tumorous growths, sexually transmitted diseases and epidemic diseases including infectious diseases, age and work-related sicknesses particularly on bones were also identified," he said.

Raghavan also said that observations on cranial fractures and crushing injuries on the recovered crania were caused by a number of lethal weapons used at that time.

"On the basis of the nature of injuries, they were divided into sharp-edged incisions caused by metal/flint axes, penetrating wounds created by pointed weapons, linear fractures on the skulls which reflect the application of blunt and small weapons and gross crushing injuries caused by use of large stones and clubs," he said.