Recently many burrial urns were discovered in various parts of Tamil Nadu. While the ones discovered in Palani were about 2000 years old, the ones in Adichanallur date to 800 BC.
The most recent issue of Archaeology Magazine has an article on the Warriors of Paros, a Greek Island in the Aegean Sea. Here too archaeologists found the remains of soldiers in urns.
Soldiers’ bones in urns–evidence of a forgotten battle fought around 730 B.C. Did these men perish on their island home of Paros, at the center of the Aegean Sea, or in some distant land? The loss of so many, at least 120 men, was certainly a catastrophe for the community, but their families and compatriots honored them, putting their cremated remains into large vases, two of which were decorated with scenes of mourning and war. Grief-stricken relatives then carried the urns to the cemetery in Paroikia, the island’s chief city, and placed them in two monumental tombs. [Warriors of Paros]
While the urns in Adichanallur had beautiful decorations of garlands and necklaces, the ones in Greece depicts war scenes. One vase showed a warrior fighting from a chariot with dead combatants lying next to him. It also shows foot soldiers and cavalry in action. A second vase shows war and mourning with women standing with their hands raised and men giving a salute to the dead.
