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Ancient Indian port linked to Roman Empire faces extinction(India)
AFP ^ | 21 Aug 2006 | Jeemon Jacob

Posted on 08/22/2006 2:26:29 AM PDT by Marius3188

PATTANAM, India -- Pottery shards, beads, Roman copper coins, and ancient wine bottles litter the strata beneath this small seaside village in India's southern Kerala state.

The 250 families, mostly agricultural laborers, who live in Pattanam, 260 kilometers (161 miles) north of Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram, find the objects pretty, but would rather dig up the ground and build larger homes.

But according to archaeologists K.P. Shajan and V. Selvakumar, they may be destroying the remnants of Muziris, a well-documented trading port where Rome and India met almost 3,000 years ago.

They say that, based on remote sensing data, a river close to Pattanam had changed its course and the ancient port may have been buried due to earthquakes or floods.

The two are worried that construction activity in the village will destroy evidence about the existence of the port before they get the chance to examine it scientifically.

"There is no doubt that Pattanam was a major port that is linked to Indo-Roman trade," Shajan said. "But we can't confirm whether it was Muziris. We need more collaborative evidence to support our findings."

A majority of the families that live in Pattanam are demolishing old tiled-roof structures and replacing them with concrete buildings right in the middle of the 1.5-kilometer zone where Shajan and Selvakumar say that Muziris was possibly located.

Muziris was a port city mentioned in several ancient travelogues and scholarly texts as a major center of trade between India and Rome, especially in pepper and other spices around the second century BC to probably as late as the sixth century AD.

Christianity may have been introduced to the sub-continent through Muziris, historians say. But Muziris mysteriously dropped off the map - maybe to war, plague, or disaster.

The two archaeologists say that they want to find out for sure and have asked local preservation groups to help.

Kerala's Historical Research Council, an independent body that promotes research in history, says that it has written to the Archaeological Survey of India, which is in charge of protecting monuments and historical places, to take steps to protect Pattanam.

But K.V. Kunjikrishnan, a professor of history, says that neither the government nor the Archaeological Survey of India has responded.

"The construction activity in the area may destroy vital evidence of historical importance," says Kunjikrishnan.

Pattanam housewife Sheeba Murali says that ancient beads pop out from the ground after heavy rains and the 30-year-old history graduate, like some other villagers, collects them and hands them over to the archaeologists.

Villagers say that they used to get gold coins from the site, but kept the finds quiet.

"Nobody admits whatever things they get. We are scared that the government may take over our land for archaeological survey," says villager Arun Rajagopal.

It was from Rajagopal's land that the two archaeologists discovered beads, layer of bricks, wine bottles, jars, pendants, and copper coins.

Selvakumar says that the ancient bricks, which the villagers used to build their homes, bore a close resemblance to those used 2,500 years ago.

"During my excavations I collected a wide range of pottery which goes back to the historic date. Amphorae, roulette ware, beads, nails and several other artifacts such as copper coins were also recovered," he says.

But Sheeba says that villagers will continue building new homes.

"My children need a decent place to stay when they grow up. But I am thrilled to live in a place where history sleeps," she says.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: ancientnavigation; empire; erythraeansea; godsgravesglyphs; india; indianocean; kerala; lakshmi; monsoonwind; monsoonwinds; muziris; navigation; pattanam; pepper; pompeii; port; raoulmclaughlin; roman; romanempire; romantrade; spices; yavanapura
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21 posted on 09/04/2010 5:44:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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Hershel Shanks, the editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, has recently published findings indicating that Jews living in the Roman Empire in 79 AD when the southwestern Italian city of Pompeii was destroyed by a massive eruption of the Mount Vesuvius volcano, believed that it was Divine retribution for the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus nine years earlier. Citing archeological evidence in a paper entitled "The Destruction of Pompeii -- God's revenge?" in the July/August edition of the magazine, Shanks told the Jerusalem Post that Book 4 of the Sibylline Oracles, an ancient mystical text, includes a passage which says in part; "When a firebrand, turned away from a cleft in the earth [Vesuvius] In the land of Italy, reaches to broad heaven It will burn many cities and destroy men. Much smoking ashes will fill the great sky And showers will fall from heaven like red earth. Know then the wrath of the heavenly God." He also points to ancient graffiti scrawled on the walls near Pompeii which includes references to "Sodom and Gomorra." The eruption of Vesuvius "attacked the core of Roman society," Shanks concluded. "There's very good reason to conclude there was a perceived connection and in the eyes of some, God was clearly at work."

Jews saw Pompeii as retribution for destruction of the Temple

YouTube: Evidence of Christianity in First Century Pompeii

Evidence of Christianity in First Century Pompeii

In 1939, Italian archeologist Prof Maiuri, discovered an artifact in the ruins of ancient Pompeii, that had a very Indian origin. This ivory statuette which survived the disaster and lasted all these 2000 years was identified by Prof Maiuri as that of the Goddess Lakshmi and dated to around 1AD. It has since then been quoted as the ‘Goddess Lakshmi statue in Pompeii' in many books & articles... in terms of iconography and technique, the closest comparisons can be made with ivory figurines recovered from the central and northwestern parts of the sub-continent and datable to the 1st century A.D. Two of these examples were found at the sites of Bhokardan and Ter in central India and a third was excavated in Begram, Afghanistan along with a large cache of ivory, bone, glass, and metal objects. Although these four figurines are not perfect matches, their shared iconographic and compositional features suggest that they may have been produced in the same region (probably central India) before being distributed to other regions. This small, rare sculpture, found in a modest dwelling in Pompeii, represents nonetheless an important indication of a trade relations that existed already by the 1st century A.D. between the Roman Empire and India.

Goddess Lakshmi statue in Pompeii | The Mysterious India | 2015-03-19

Goddess Lakshmi statue in Pompeii | The Mysterious India | 2015-03-19

Goddess Lakshmi statue in Pompeii | The Mysterious India | 2015-03-19

Roman gold coins excavated in Pudukottai India

Goddess Lakshmi statue in Pompeii | The Mysterious India | 2015-03-19

22 posted on 05/05/2020 3:44:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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