Northern India R. Tewari (2003) radiocarbon dated iron artefacts in
Uttar Pradesh, including furnaces, tuyeres, and slag between c. 1800 BCE to 1000 BCE. Antiquity of iron in India was pushed back from following the excavations at Malhar, Raja Nala ka Tila, Dadupur and Lauhradewa in Uttar Pradesh from 1996-2001. The use of iron and iron working was prevalent in the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas from the early second millennium BCE. The beginning of the use of iron has been traditionally associated with the eastward migration of the later
Vedic people, who are also considered as an agency which revolutionised material culture particularly in the
Greater Magadhan region. Scholar Rakesh Tewari states that new finds and their dates suggest the need for a fresh review. According to him, the evidence corroborates the early use of iron in other areas of the country, and attests that India was indeed an independent centre for the development of the working of iron. However, reviewing the claims of earliest uses of iron during c. 1800-1000 BCE, archaeologist
Suraj Bhan noted, "the stratigraphical context and chronology of iron is not beyond doubt" at these sites (namely Malhar, Dadupur, and Lahuradeva) although "there is no doubt" that iron was being used in the Ganges Plains "a few centuries before the rise of urbanization [...] around 600 BCE".
Southern India Claims for iron smelting in
Tamil Nadu as early as the mid-4th millennium BCE have been made on the basis of radiocarbon dates from charcoal samples at the site of
Sivagalai, dated between
c. 3345 and 2953 BCE. Recent excavations at
Mayiladumparai in southern India have also been interpreted as indicating early iron use, with some radiocarbon dates suggesting an Iron Age beginning around
c. 2172 BCE. These interpretations remain under discussion. More securely dated Early Iron Age sites in South India include
Hallur in
Karnataka and
Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu, which are generally dated to around
c. 1000 BCE. The earliest reliably dated iron furnace in Tamil Nadu was discovered at
Kodumanal and dates to the 5th century BCE. In a broader context, limited use of iron is attested in the Middle East from
c. 3000 BCE, but iron metallurgy became widespread only after
c. 1200 BCE, when iron increasingly replaced bronze in tools and weapons, marking the conventional beginning of the Iron Age.
Sri Lanka The protohistoric Early Iron Age in Sri Lanka lasted from 1000 BC to 600 BC. Radiocarbon evidence has been collected from
Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in
Sigiriya. The Anuradhapura settlement is recorded to extend by 800 BC and grew to by 700–600 BC to become a town. The skeletal remains of an Early Iron Age chief were excavated in Anaikoddai,
Jaffna. The name "Ko Veta" is engraved in
Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions on a
seal buried with the skeleton and is assigned by the excavators to the 3rd century BC. Ko, meaning "King" in Tamil, is comparable to such names as Ko Atan and Ko Putivira occurring in contemporary Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in south India. It is also speculated that Early Iron Age sites may exist in
Kandarodai, Matota,
Pilapitiya and
Tissamaharama. ==See also==