For the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the most important documentarysource for information on early South Indian culture is a body of prosepoetry known as the Sangam anthology. These indigenous texts date to the first fewcenturies A.D. and comprise the earliest extant examples of Tamil literature. Notsurprisingly, this is also the period to which can be traced the first indications of theconcept of a "Tamil" identity in South India. Archaeologically, the Tamil Sangamera corresponds roughly to the late Iron Age--Early Historic period (c. 300 B.C. toA.D. 300), which represents a key stage in the development of South Indian materialculture. Prevailing analyses of early Tamil society have relied heavily on the historicaltexts, often at the expense of critically examining the material culture from Keralaand Tamil Nadu. This study examines the relationship between South Indianarchaeology and history and argues that any framework for interpreting early Tamilidentity must acknowledge the important qualitative differences in the ways thattexts and artifacts construct and reflect ethnic identity, and that archaeologists andhistorians must analyze their respective data sets within the larger social, political,and economic practices of early Tamilakam.