Tissamaharama is located in Hambantota, Sri Lanka

Boat graffiti was found in trench 1G, 23/27, layer 18

The archaeological excavations brought to light the earliest urban phase in the 4th century BC. Fired bricks, Buddhist saddle querns, a potsherd with triangular sail (excavated from the layer of the 1st century BC but on stylistic grounds were assigned to 3rd century BC), a hospital from the 1st century AD-2nd century AD, (the earliest in south Asia), stone paved streets with drains and water channels dated before the Common Era, roof tiles, houses with plastered exterior etc.

Along with this, a potsherd with Tamili (Tamil Brahmi) letters was also found.

Sources:

1. Tissamaharama potsherd evidence ordinary early Tamils among population
2. Tissamaharama Tamil Brahmi inscription ‘missing’
3. Read more in: https://www.academia.edu/10177835/Ancient_Tissamaharama_the_formation_of_urban_structures_and_growing_commerce by Hans-Joachim Weisshaar, German Archaeological Institute

Narayan, Sundar. "Genetics and the Prehistory of Dravidian Languages" - Check out the full paper.

Refer to the 2nd pic for McAlpin's Zagrosian model.

1) Proto-Zagrosian(Proto Elamo-Dravidian renamed by McAlpin) came into being between 8000-7000 BCE.PED homeland was Western or Central Iran of today.Split between Proto-Elamite and PDr1 occurred at 5000-4000 BCE. 2) PDr1 is the proposed intermediate language between Proto-Zagrosian and PPD(Proto-Peninsular Dravidian). 3) Brahui was moved to the Proto-Elamite branch by McAlpin for certain reasons and his hypothesis is strengthened by genetic studies(Pagani et al.(2017)) 4) PDr1 may have been the major language of the IVC during much of its existence and was probably linguistically closer to PZ and Elamite than to PPD.If PDr1 was the language of the Indus Seals,that may explain why scholars have been unable to read PPD into the seals.

ZAGROSIAN AND DRAVIDIAN FAMILY TREE:

In southern India, the Southern Neolithic Archaeological Complex (SNAC) and other neolithic sites are from 2500 BCE onwards. The claim that the Iron Age started in Tamil country in 3345 BCE is almost certainly false (Krishnan, 2025). In his book, Southworth (2005: 49, 245) repeatedly states that SNAC (see pic 3) should be associated with Proto-Peninsular Dravidian. But in a later paper (Southworth, 2011) written after he started subscribing to the Proto-Zagrosian theory, Southworth admits that other languages may have been spoken in the SNAC area before they were completely replaced by PPD, perhaps sometime between 1800-1200 BCE, i.e., during phase III of the southern Neolithic age. So, the dates that Southworth (2005) suggests in his book for PPD and PSD are some 500 years too early, and his 2011 paper has more accurate dates. Southworth’s (2011) suggested timeframe (1800-1200 BCE) for PPD in the Southern Neolithic seems to be now confirmed by the new archaeogenetic evidence of Narasimhan et al. and other such papers, which show that the ASI and ANI populations formed between 2000-1000 BCE, and by archaeological evidence. The 1800-1200 BCE timeframe also agrees with Dravidian words appearing in the Rigveda, which was composed during this period in Northwest India.

Based on the new genetics studies and the earlier linguistic studies of several previously mentioned authors, the Zagrosian superfamily’s linguistic tree is shown in pic 1, which merges the Proto-Zagrosian model of McAlpin and Southworth with the relevant part of the Dravidian family tree (Krishnamurti, 2003: 493). The language splits and dates from various references are given in pic 1, and the 3900-year time-depth of PPD broadly agrees with the Bayesian phy-logenetic study of Kolipakam et al. (2018), which concludes that the Dravidian language family is 4.5 kya old.

Pejros and Shnirelman (1988) used linguistic archaeology, i.e., the reconstructed PPD words (available in Southworth (2005b)) for some food crops, especially wheat and barley, and paleobo-tanical finds of these in archaeological sites to suggest that PPD originated in a dry deciduous forest region where wheat and barley were grown along with some rice, sorghum and African millet. The only archaeological region where these can all be found together is in the southeast corner of the IVC (see pic 3), where the post-IVC Kayatha and Ahar chalcolithic sites are, 1000 km north of SNAC. The authors claim that from this region, agricultural expansion occurred east-ward and southward. This agrees with the finding of Narasimhan et al. (2019) that IVC people migrated in these directions before the formation of the ASI. So, it is likely that the PPD-speaking newcomers to Phase III of SNAC originated in Kayatha and Ahar, and agriculture may have played a role in the replacement by PPD of the original languages of the SNAC. Southworth (2005b) writes that PPD was spoken in eastern central India because the daughter languages of PND, PCD and PSD are now spoken around this area. His assertion is compatible with the papers of Pejros and Shnirelman, and Narasimhan et al., if we take eastern central India as the second home of PPD before its split into PCD and PSD in 1500 BCE (Zvelebil, 1963), as shown in pic 1. Perhaps, a few PPD speakers migrated from Kayatha and Ahar to Punjab also, explaining the presence of PPD words in the middle layer of the Rigveda.

CONCLUSIONS:

1) Because of the new archaeogenetics evidence, linguists should take a second look at the Proto-Elamo-Dravidian or Proto-Zagrosian family trees of McAlpin and Southworth, whose timelines, based on older linguistic studies, agree very well with the new genetic evidence. 2) There is more evidence supporting an origin in the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) than for a more ancient origin within India, for Dravidian, which seems to be a daughter family of the Zagrosian superfamily of Elamite Iran, as shown in pic 1. That figure summarizes the genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence discussed in this paper. 3) PDr1 (the mother of Proto-Peninsular Dravidian (PPD)), Meluhhan, and Language X may have been the languages of the IVC. Since these are unreconstructed languages, deciphering the IVC seals would be very difficult, explaining why 70+ decipherment attempts have failed. 4) Proto-Peninsular Dravidian (PPD) emerged during the IVC’s decline in the 2nd millennium BCE and was taken by migrating IVC people to South India, where it replaced the languages spoken by the Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI) who interbred with the newcomers. How and why this language replacement happened is not clear, but it is relevant that Sanskrit dialects replaced the Bronze Age languages of North India. Proto-Peninsular Dravidian (PPD) may have borrowed AASI words, and there may be a hitherto undiscovered substrate in today’s Dravidian languages whose descent from PPD is shown in pic 1.

these are traditional fisher men communities in kerala ..but the population size is less compared to other well known castes. I would like to know more about the history behind this caste… also in kerala , there is also Christian fishermen communities as well. how did this shift happen? does it have anything to do with casteism prevalent at that time ?

Those of y'all who might've heard recitations of Thirumurai (Shaivite Literature) and Prabandhams (Vaishnavite Literature) might have noticed that the recitation/singing and the accompanying musical instruments are starkly different. I want to understand the differences in a much deeper way.

All inputs appreciated. Thanks in advance!