Search for India's ancient city

Archaeologists working on India's south-west coast believe they may
have solved the mystery of the location of a major port which was key
to trade between India and the Roman Empire - Muziris, in the
modern-day state of Kerala.

For many years, people have been in search of the almost mythical
port, known as Vanchi to locals.

Much-recorded in Roman times, Muziris was a major centre for trade
between Rome and southern India - but appeared to have simply
disappeared.

Now, however, an investigation by two archaeologists - KP Shajan and V
Selvakumar - has placed the ancient port as having existed where the
small town of Pattanam now stands, on India's south-west Malabar
coast.

"It is the first time these remains have been found on this coast," Dr
Sharjan told BBC World Service's Discovery programme.

"We believe it could be Muziris."

Key evidence

Pattanam is the only site in the region to produce architectural
features and material contemporary to the period.

"No other site in India has yielded this much archaeological
evidence," said Dr Roberta Tomba, of the British Museum.

"We knew it was very important, and we knew if we could find it, there
should be Roman and other Western artefacts there - but we hadn't been
able to locate it on the ground."

Muziris is located on a river, distant from Tindis - by river and
sea, 500 stadia; and by river from the shore, 20 stadia

Roman description of the location of Muziris

Until recently, the best guesses for the location of Muziris centred
on the mouth of the Periyar river, at a place called Kodungallor - but
now the evidence suggests a smaller town nearby, Pattanam, is the real
location.

Drs Shajan and Selvakumar now meet locals on a regular basis as they
continue their work, with some older people in particular remembering
picking up glass beads and pottery after heavy rains.

Undoubtedly, they told Discovery, the many pieces of amphora are from
the Mediterranean - a key to establishing Pattanam as the place where
Muziris once stood.

"These amphora are so common," Dr Shajan said.

"We have hundreds of shards of Mediterranean pottery."

Mystery disappearance

Muziris became important because of the Romans' interest in trading,
and their desire to have contact with regions beyond the reach of
conquest and set up trading routes with these places.

"India had a long fascination for the Romans, going back to Alexander
the Great," Dr Tomba said.

"Alexander was a huge model for succeeding Roman emperors, and the
fact that he had been in India and brought back tales of the fantastic
things, the people and products there, heightened the Roman desire to
continue that association."

What is known, from a 1st Century document, is that the harbour was
"exceptionally important for trade."

Clues to its location are provided in ancient Indian texts. Professor
Rajan Gerta, from Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala, said that there
are many references to "ships coming with gold, and going back with
'black gold'" - pepper.

"These ships went back with a whole lot of pepper and various aromatic
spices, collected from the forests," he added.

Merchants from a number of different cultures are believed to have
operated in the port, and there are numerous Indian finds from the
time as well as Roman ones.

In 1983, a large hoard of Roman coins was found at a site around six
miles from Pattanam.

However, even if Muziris has been found, one mystery remains - how it
disappeared so completely in the first place.

Dr Tomba said that it has always been presumed that the flow of the
trade between Rome and India lasted between the 1st Century BC through
to the end of the 1st Century AD, but that there is growing evidence
that this trade continued much longer, into the 6th and early 7th
Century - although not necessarily continually.

"We're not quite clear how long it went on in Muziris, and the more
evidence we can gather from the artefacts, the clearer the picture
that will build up," she added.

"What is interesting is that in the 6th Century, a Greek writer,
writing about the Indian Ocean, wrote that the Malabar coast was still
a thriving centre for the export of pepper - but he doesn't mention
Muziris."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4970452.stm