Muziris was a thriving port in the Indo-Roman trade in
the First Century B.C.E. And one day, it just vanished. Recent excavations have
thrown up the possibility that Pattanam, a small village on the Kerala coast,
could be the lost port. What happened all those years back?
“After every rain, when the water rises from beneath,
the beads surface with them.”
Muziris was a thriving port in the Indo-Roman trade in
the First Century B.C.E. And one day, it just vanished. Recent excavations have
thrown up the possibility that Pattanam, a small village on the Kerala coast,
could be the lost port. What happened all those years back?
“After every rain, when the water rises from beneath,
the beads surface with them.”
Ancient remains: The ruins of a fort at Kottapuram
overlooking river Periyar, near Pattanam.
The flourishing town of Muciri where the large
beautiful ships of the yavanas which bring gold and take pepper come disturbing
the white foam of the little fair Periyar of the Cheras. Ahananaru (149), Tamil
Sangam Poem datable to 2nd CE.
Pattanam, a small village 25 km north of
The shapes of the beads are inconsistent and the
colours are uneven. The necklace looks ordinary till PJ Cherian, an
archaeologist accompanying me, informs me that the beads could be 2,000 years
old. Alongside the necklace, Athira has carefully placed a cameo blank, a
semi-precious stone used to make craved jewellery for the Romans.
Annual bounty
Athira is no treasure hunter; she picked some of these
ancient beads from her backyard, some from the streets and a few others from
the neighbourhood. “After every rain, when the water rises from beneath, the beads
surface with them. You have to just pick,” confirms Dr. Krishnakumar who lives
in a larger house near Athira's. He too has a collection including a fragmented
bright metal piece.
Pattanam is no ordinary village. Beneath the red earth
is the ancient port town extensively described as Muciri by the Tamil Sangam
poets and frequented by the Romans and recorded by them as Muziris.
This thriving trade centre was completely lost without
trace (at least on ground). What puzzled the archaeologists even more was their
informed guesses about its location turned wrong many times till they hit the
first reliable trail three years ago. How they reached Pattanam to reach
Muziris is a story to be told.
Trade between
While the journey from Muziris was easier with the
northeastern winds, the journey from
Buried history: The excavations at Pattanam.
Gold coins, topaz, coral, copper, glass, wine and wheat
were imported from Rome, while pearl, diamonds, sapphire, ivory, silk, pepper
and precious stones were exported from the west coast. Casson estimates that a
500-ton ship could have carried goods equivalent to the price of 2,400 acres of
fertile farmlands in
The trade, it appears, was seductively profitable and
worth the risk. As the Vienna Papyrus, a rare document discovered about two
decades back reveals, the trade between Muziris and Alexandria was well worked
out and traders from both sides went to great lengths to secure it.
Muziris should have been a busy and large settlement to
host this kind of trade. But it suddenly vanished. Before the question as to
why it disappeared could be answered, archaeologists had to first find where it
existed.
For long, many thought Kodungallur, a town seven km
north of Pattanam, was Muziris. Probably, William Logan's Malabar Manual,
written in 1887, influenced the thinking and search.
In 1945, for the first time, excavations were taken up
in Kodungallur. It did not produce any evidence related to ancient commercial
links. Another excavation was carried out in 1969 by the Archaeological Survey
of India in Cheraman Parambu, two km north of Kodungallur. Only antiquities of
the 13th and 16th century were recovered. Muziris remained elusive.
Unexpected help
Help came from an unconnected development.
In the 1990s, ecologists and archaeologists were
studying the evolution of Kerala's coast line. Shajan Paul, a research scholar
then, was surveying the
This understanding turned out to be crucial.
Earlier searches were looking for Muzris on the north
banks of River Periyar and near to its mouth since the texts mention so. If the
river Periyar had shifted its course, then a whole set of new locations emerge.
It was at this time, in 1998, that Shajan heard from
his friend Vinod, a local resident of Pattanam and an engineer, about the
appearance of a seemingly ancient brick wall in his compound while digging for
coconut planting.
Though he and his friend V Selvakumar, along with Prof
Vimala Begley, the renowned expert on Indo-Roman trade had surveyed Kodungallur
region before, they had never looked at Pattanam. However, this time, given its
proximity to Kodungallur and the fact that the place name Pattanam means a port
town, Shajan thought it was worth the try. He also conjectured that if the
River Periyar had shifted northwest, its earlier course would have been closer
to Pattanam.
Tell-tale signs
When he arrived at Pattanam to look at the brick wall,
to his surprise, he found lots of pottery shreds, evenly burnt and of superior
quality in comparison to the megalithic pottery of south
Shajan and Selvakumar had to wait for another six more
years to do a trial excavation. “During this period we had formed a good core
team which included P.J. Cherian and Roberta Tomber, an authority on Roman
pottery. We were actively looking for more surface evidence and wanted our
future search to be systematic, institutionally backed and sustained,” Shajan
explained.
“We walked around the village and experienced the
topography and landscape. The north eastern part was a raised mound indicating
a potential spot. After negotiations with the plot owner we dug two pits to a
depth of three m each. Much to our excitement, we found artefacts that one
would find in a Roman site such as Arikamedu. We were convinced that we were
closer to Muziris,” recalls Selvakumar, now an archaeologist from the
The research team subsequently grew and a larger team
was formed under the aegis of Kerala Council for Historical Research. The year
2007 turned out to be important.
“A wharf complex with a dugout canoe made from a single
log of wood and several wooden posts/bollards were found during excavations in
2007. Carbon dating fixed the date of the canoe to 1st century BCE. A large
quantity of botanical remains such as pepper, rice, cardamom, frankincense and
grape seeds belonging to the same period were also discovered. It clearly
emerged that Pattanam was once a thriving link in the
PJ Cherian, Director, Pattanam excavations, is however
cautious. “We would still like to retain some humility on the identity of
Pattanam as Muziris. Evidences indicate that the site is closely associated with
Muziris, but we are not sure which part of the ‘first emporium of the orient'
is Pattanam. Where could be its satellite sites? Nelkynda, Bycare and Tyndis,
the other ports mentioned in the texts (yet to be identified) are of equal
importance and we need to know about them as well,” he adds.
Work continues at Pattanam with more institutions such
as ASI and
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/05/02/stories/2010050250280800.htm