In early 2006, a polished Neolithic celt (tool) that had engravings resembling the Indus script was found by a school teacher V.

The four signs were identified by epigraphists of the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, according to its Special Commissioner, T. S. Sridhar.

He added that before this discovery, the southernmost occurrence of the Indus script was at Daimabad, Maharashtra on the Pravara River in the Godavari Valley.

Subsequently, the Archaeological Survey of India decided to excavate the Sembiyankandiyur site to find out its antiquity and fix the chronology.

During excavations by the ASI in April-May 2008, megalithic pottery with graffiti symbols that have a strong resemblance to a sign in the Indus script were found.

[3] Iravatham Mahadevan says that what is striking about the arrow-mark graffiti on the megalithic pottery found at Sembiyankandiyur and Melaperumpallam villages is that they are always incised twice and together, just as they are in the Indus script.