REBIRTH OF MUZARIS...
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala’s Pattanam village, some 260km from here, where researchers recently excavated an ancient city, will soon be a major tourist attraction.
Researchers stumbled on the port city four years ago and crucial evidence emerged during excavations last year solving the mystery of Muziris that appeared to have simply disappeared.
The port city was key to trade between India and the Roman Empire.
“We are planning a new product called Kerala Heritage Tourism centring on Pattanam and Kodungallur,” Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said. “We expect a large number of international visitors who are interested in ancient history and heritage here.”
The tourism department has cleared a master plan for the heritage city preserving the excavated areas and making provisions for financial support.
Fresh archaeological evidence has surfaced establishing trade links between the ancient city and many key centres around the world, both east and west, as far back as 500 BC.
“Pattanam’s role as an overseas port for both import and export is clearly visible by its artifacts from the Indo-Roman period,” said Dr Roberta Tomber of the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research of the British Museum.
Pattanam is the first habitation site of the Iron Age ever unearthed in Kerala. Since previous inquiries were confined to megalithic burials, no firm dates were available for the Iron Age except a few.
“A large number of amphora shards been recovered from Pattanam were containers for wine and date. The most common types are from south Italy, from the bay of Naples area, and from the small islands of Kos and Rhodes in the Aegean,” added Tomber who is attending an international seminar on Muziris Heritage Project here.
According to Dr P J Cherian, director the Kerala Council for Historic Research (KCHR) who led the research, five samples that were analysed include charcoal samples and parts of a wooden canoe and bollards recovered from trenches.
The analysis was conducted at the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Institute of Physics in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, by experts led by G V Ravi Prasad and Koushik Dutta.
“One of the most exciting finds from the 2007 excavations at Pattanam are a few shards of amphorae made not in the Mediterranean but from the Red Sea site of Aqaba in Jordan,” Tomber said. “These are from the fifth century AD or later and provide important information that the site may have still been used by the Romans in the later Roman period.”
Researchers stumbled on the port city four years ago and crucial evidence emerged during excavations last year solving the mystery of Muziris that appeared to have simply disappeared.
The port city was key to trade between India and the Roman Empire.
“We are planning a new product called Kerala Heritage Tourism centring on Pattanam and Kodungallur,” Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said. “We expect a large number of international visitors who are interested in ancient history and heritage here.”
The tourism department has cleared a master plan for the heritage city preserving the excavated areas and making provisions for financial support.
Fresh archaeological evidence has surfaced establishing trade links between the ancient city and many key centres around the world, both east and west, as far back as 500 BC.
“Pattanam’s role as an overseas port for both import and export is clearly visible by its artifacts from the Indo-Roman period,” said Dr Roberta Tomber of the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research of the British Museum.
Pattanam is the first habitation site of the Iron Age ever unearthed in Kerala. Since previous inquiries were confined to megalithic burials, no firm dates were available for the Iron Age except a few.
“A large number of amphora shards been recovered from Pattanam were containers for wine and date. The most common types are from south Italy, from the bay of Naples area, and from the small islands of Kos and Rhodes in the Aegean,” added Tomber who is attending an international seminar on Muziris Heritage Project here.
According to Dr P J Cherian, director the Kerala Council for Historic Research (KCHR) who led the research, five samples that were analysed include charcoal samples and parts of a wooden canoe and bollards recovered from trenches.
The analysis was conducted at the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Institute of Physics in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, by experts led by G V Ravi Prasad and Koushik Dutta.
“One of the most exciting finds from the 2007 excavations at Pattanam are a few shards of amphorae made not in the Mediterranean but from the Red Sea site of Aqaba in Jordan,” Tomber said. “These are from the fifth century AD or later and provide important information that the site may have still been used by the Romans in the later Roman period.”
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