Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula.[14] In Attirampakkam, archaeologists from the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education excavated ancient stone tools which suggests that a humanlike population existed in the Tamil Nadu region somewhere around 300,000 years before homo sapiens arrived from Africa.[15][16] In Adichanallur, 24 km (15 mi) from Tirunelveli, archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) unearthed 169 clay urns containing human skulls, skeletons, bones, husks, grains of rice, charred rice and celts of the Neolithic period, 3,800 years ago.[17] The ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is “very rudimentary” Tamil Brahmi.[18] Adichanallur has been announced as an archaeological site for further excavation and studies.[19] About 60 per cent of the total epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu, and most of these are in the Tamil language.