Megalithic rock structure found in Tirupur village

Coimbatore: Archaeology researchers and enthusiasts have discovered a megalithic structure, which they say could be around 3,000 years old, at Mangarasa Valayapalayam village near Avinashi in Tirupur district.

The structure, whose plinth is a collection of rocks on which a huge boulder was placed, could have been a precursor for later stone structures such as stone circles and menhirs, said researchers.

Menhirs, stone circles, and slab cists were some of the megalithic structures found in the Kongu region, said archaeological researcher Stephen Mudiarasu.

“Structures such as slab cists have a regular shape that were cut by people and point to the usage of iron implements. So we place irregular structures at an earlier period when there were no iron tools. What we have found is one such structure. After consulting senior experts, we safely aged it around 3,000 years,” he said.

The boulder which is on the top would weigh around two tonnes, said Mudiarasu. “The base is made of three smaller rocks placed near each other. The top boulder measures 11ft wide on the upper side and 5.5ft wide at the base. The whole structure is on a hillock. Locals call it ‘Thookki Vechaan Paarai’,” he said. Such irregular structures were so far found only in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, he said.

The structure was first spotted by Vadivelu, a school teacher in the region. But he could not take a picture of it. Later a cop, Velliangiri, brought a picture of it to the researchers. “We then saw that it was not a natural formation and went to the spot, measured it, marked its precise location and sent it to senior archaeological experts such as R Poonkundran and T Subramanian,” he said.

When contacted, former assistant director of state archaeology department R Poonkundran said the age of the structure would be within 3,000 years, somewhere around 2,600 years. “It is a man-made stone cist,” he said. But as it was situated on a hillock, its purpose was not clear, he added.

The researchers have informed district archaeological officials about the findings. Parts of Mangarasa Valayapalayam fall in Erode district.