Submerged City May Be Older Than Mesopotamia

Hindustan Times ^ | 12-3-2003 | Utpal Parashar

[blam]

Submerged city may be older than Mesopotamia

Utpal Parashar
Dehra Dun, December 3

A submerged coastal city near Poompuhar in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, is the focus of a major expedition being conducted jointly by the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Both the organisations are trying to piece together the city's past, which some noted marine archaeologists consider to be the birthplace of modern civilisation. The once flourishing port city is located about one mile off the Nagapattinam coast.

"We have been able to locate a section of the city at a depth of 7 m and will soon start operations to recover objects that will help ascertain its past," said Rear Admiral K.R. Srinivasan, chief hydrographer to the Indian government.

English marine archaeologist Graham Hancock, who conducted an underwater exploration in the area in 2001, believes that the Poompuhar site could be older than Sumeria in Mesopotamia, where modern civilisation is believed to have originated nearly 5,000 years ago.

The 2001 expedition was funded by Channel Four of Britain and Learning Channel of the US in association with the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa.

It led Hancock to surmise that the city could have been submerged by a tidal wave as high as 400 ft somewhere between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago.

Other experts like Glenne Milne, a geologist at the University of Durham, UK, agree with Hancock. Video footage of the site shows that the submerged city near Poompuhar was far superior to constructions found in Harappan sites.

Although NIO had conducted similar offshore expeditions in the area in the late 1980s and early 1990s — and discovered objects like ring wells, brick structures and megalithic wares — it did not evince much interest till Hancock revealed his findings.

The new venture by the INHD and ASI may put an end to the debate on the submerged city. It could also rekindle a new interest in locating other such submerged towns and shipwrecks along India's coastline.

[blam]

I don't know if this is the same site or not. Does anyone know?

Lost Civilisation From 7,500BC Discovered Off Indian Coast (That's 9,500 years ago, wow)

[stainlessbanner]

oldcitybump

[Billthedrill]

How was this city related to the Indus Valley civilization, do you know? Southern end, or not related at all?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

They should have signed Kyoto and avoided global warming.

[Lady Jag]

blam, do you have a ping list? Once in a while I'm lucky enough to stumble into one of your postings and I find them very interesting. I'd like to be on your list, please.

[blam]

"I'd like to be on your list, please."

Okay, FReeper 'farmfriend' keeps the ping list.

[EggsAckley]

I'd like to be on your list, please.

Me too!!

[RightWhale]

English marine archaeologist Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock is a freelance overseas journalist. He learned S.C.U.B.A. just so he could journalize ancient sunken cities. He digs deep and brings up cultural info that usually would be missed. He would have been a great cultural anthropologist.

[milestogo]

AFAIK, Cambay is on the East Coast of India. This site appears to be in the south/south near the Bay of Bengal.

[Lee Heggy]

Graham Hancock 'English marine archaeologist'. That alone makes me squint a little harder. I'd like to see those credentials please. Not that he isn't a fun read but you have to take his speculations with a bit more than a grain of salt.

[colorado tanker]

I'd like to be on the pinglist too. Thanks.

[blam]

[blam]

This is the general location of the 'underwater city' linked in post number two.

[Interesting Times]

Graham Hancock's Underworld stuff is here

[milestogo]

That's in the gulf of Cambay near gujarat. The site in the article in near Tamil Nadu in the south. The gulf of Cambay is closer to the locations of the indus valley civilization.

[Lee Heggy]

Consider the source please.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock's early years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Later he went to school and university in the northern English city of Durham and graduated from Durham University in 1973 with First Class Honours in Sociology. He went on to pursue a career in quality journalism, writing for many of Britain's leading newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976-1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983.

Graham Hancock is a journalist with a background in Sociology not an Archaeologist 'marine' or otherwise. He writes excellent stories and speculates about things that are considered mysterious. I'm not knocking him because I don't think he wrote the article but, for someone to hang the hard earned title of Achaeologist on him in order to legitimatise what is nothing more than assumptions about some underwater ruins is improper and does a diservice to legitimate experts in the field of Archaeology.

[Lady Jag]

FF, Eggs and SD would like to be on the ping list you have for blam-like things.

[EggsAckley]

Thank you. I neglected to add Mr. Blam's name on my post. I just love this archaeological stuff!

[Lady Jag]

It was just something I noticed. Maybe you can do the same for me someday; I do stuff like that all the time, only I'm hopeless.