The ‘menhir’ (standing stone) that was declared as a protected monument at Kodumanal in Erode district on Monday.
| Photo Credit: M. GOVARTHAN

The district administration has identified three places for establishing a museum at a total cost of ₹10 crore to display artefacts that were unearthed during the previous excavations at Kodumanal in Chennimalai Union.

Kodumanal, located on the northern banks of the Noyyal and about 42 km from Erode, made it to the archaeology map in 1961 when the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) started the first dig after noticing antique materials scattered across the barren land of the village.

From 1985 to 2011, excavations were carried out in 10 seasons on private and poramboke land that brought to light two cultural periods, megalithic and the early historic period, as the village served as an industrial and trade centre over 2,500 years ago. The village was once a flourishing city lying on the ancient trade route connecting the Chera capital of Karur with the Chera port of Muziri, which is present-day Pattnam in Kerala.

The State government had in its 2021 Budget announced that Kodumanal would be declared as a protected archaeological site and a preliminary notification was issued. On November 30, 2022, the government notified five sites – ‘menhir’ (standing stone) on government poramboke ‘vandi pathai’ (a cart track), a habitation site on Public Works Department land, two megalithic burial sites on PWD land and a megalithic burial site on government land. A government order was passed and the State Department of Archaeology has placed two noticeboards, one near the ‘menhir’ and the other outside a burial site on the PWD land, declaring the monuments as of historical importance.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin during his visit to Pollachi on March 13, 2024, announced various new projects for Erode, in which he declared the museum project. A government order was passed recently and the Revenue Department has identified three places in the district of which one would be selected and finalised.

Sources told The Hindu the museum will not be established at Kodumanal while an information and interpretative centre would only come up. “Discussion is on to finalise the place and a report would be submitted to the government for approval,” the source said..