Cuddalore :

A terracotta ring well, believed to be over 2,000 years old, was found near Cuddalore during the desilting work in a lake, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

When the workers were desilting the Kondangi Lake near Cuddalore old town on Saturday, they found a strange round-shaped object and informed the Annamalai University’s History Department.

A team, led by assistant professor J R Sivaramakrishnan of the Annamalai University,went to the spot  and examined the object on Sunday.

Sivaramakrishnan said, “It is a terracotta ring well, which might be 2,200 years old. The ring well is 42 cm high with a radius of 54 cm. A 100 metres away, we found broken pieces of an urn. With all these findings, we could say there was a settlement here during the stone age.”

He added that based on the stone manufacturing style, the ring well may date back to 2nd century BC.”

Further he said that as the area from where the  ring well was found was full of sea sand, the place might have been a sea-area centuries ago.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States>Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / July 14th, 2014