2004 ലെ കണ്ടെത്തലിന്റെ പട്ടികയും 2007 ലെ കെ സി എച്ച് ആർ പറയുന്ന പട്ടികയും താരതമ്യം ചെയ്യുക
EXCAVATIONS AT PATTANAM 2007 - A REPORT
DRAFT COPY SUBMITTED TO A.S.I TO INDICATE
THE PROGRESS OF THE PREPARATION OF THE REPORT
[Citation / publication with permission only since some information may need verification]
P.J.Cherian
Director
V.Selvakumar and K.P. Shajan
Co-Directors
Kerala Council for Historical Research
P.B 839, Vyloppilly Samskrithi BhavanNalanda, Thiruvananthapuram – 695 003
Tel : 0471- 2310409 / 6574988Mail : kchr@sancharnet.in / kchrtvm.gmail.com
Website : www.keralahistory.ac.in
CONTENTS
Page No.
Chapter 1. Introduction 3
Chapter 2. Cultural Sequence and Chronology 8
Chapter 3. The Trenches 10
Chapter 4. Important Finds 16
Appendices I. Photographs
II List of Antiquities
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
Pattanam is the first site on the Malabar Coast to yield a variety of archaeological evidence on the Indian Ocean trade, especially the Indo-Roman. The significance of the site is that, until its discovery, the few Roman coin hoards, the classical literary sources, travel accounts and legends, were the only sources to validate the pivotal role of the Malabar Coast in the Indo-Roman trade. While many port sites have been investigated with success on the Coramandal coast ever since the excavation of Arikamedu by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1945, no evidence for settlement or port activity associated with the Indo-Roman trade could be unearthed on the Malabar Coast. The twentieth century thus remained barren as far as the Malabar Coast is concerned, in spite of the best efforts by many researchers. The lacuna that persisted despite the abundance of textual references on the port towns of Malabar Coast and the discovery of numerous Roman coin hoards across Kerala, is quite surprising and intriguing. Though various theories were put forward on the location of Muziris, Tyndis, Becare and Nelykynda using textual references and toponymic inferences, only very minimal field explorations were undertaken to identify them. Against this backdrop, the present research at Pattanam undertaken by KCHR has given a major boost not only to the archaeology of Indian Ocean trade, but to the Kerala archaeology in general.
History of Research
The history of research at Pattanam though does not extend back much beyond a decade, the search for Muziris - Roman port site on the mid Kerala coast - had begun much earlier. Hence it would be appropriate to briefly sketch the history of research on the Muziris.
From the nineteenth century onwards, the Muziris has been identified as located somewhere near Kodungallur or Cranganur (Logan 1887). Since then, scholars have extensively commented on Muziris and its location. Anujan Achan who was the Director of Archaeology, Cochin State in the 1940s, excavated the site of Cheraman Parambu in 1945-46 (Achan 1946), but failed to find any Early Historic or Roman material. Subsequently, K.V.Raman excavated the site of Thiruvanchikulam in 1969-70 (Raman 1970) and there too no Early Historic material could be located. Rajan Chedambath explored Kodungallur area and the area to the east of the Pullut river for Early Historic materials, but those surveys mainly produced megalithic burial sites and medieval habitation sites. Gurukkal and Whittaker (2001) while discussing the location of Muziris, presented a strong case for Kodungallur. Several scholars (Narayanan, Veluthat, Sreedhara Menon) have expressed their views on the location of Muziris and it would be beyond the scope of this work to present them all. While majority of them held the view that the Muziris was in and around Kodungallur, Kesari Balakrishna Pilla argued that it could be somewhere near Paravur.
In 1983, a major hoard of Roman gold coins was unearthed from a sand dune at Kochal in Valluvally about 7 km southeast of Pattanam. Many of the coins from this hoard were sold to antique dealers and only a few could be recovered by the Kerala State Archaeology Department. In 1985, a hoard of silver punch marked coins were unearthed at Kodussery near Angmaly. There are several locations in this area where people report finding of Roman or Punch marked coins during routine activities. But those had never come to the notice of academicians or government agencies (Chedambath 1997).
Explorations and salvage excavations conducted by various individuals (Gurukkal 1987, Rajan Chedambath 1997, Cherian 1996-1998, Shajan 1998) and institutions such as Union Christian College [Centre for Ecological and Archaeological Studies] and Kerala State Archaeology Department had brought to light several megalithic burial sites in the Lower Periyar basin. However, habitation remains related to the megalithic period remained as elusive as ever. In this context of paucity of material evidence for the Early Historic Indo-Roman trade on the Malabar Coast, the discovery of Pattanam can be said to be a major breakthrough.
The site was first located by Shajan K P (1998) based on the information given by Mr. Vinodan, a resident of Pattanam. The surveys and explorations (1996-98) by the archaeology students of the Centre for Ecological and Cultural Studies, U C College Alwaye also paved the way towards identifying the latent potential of the site. Subsequently, the site was investigated by a group of researchers in 2003 and 2004 and a hypothesis that, it could be the location of ancient Muziris was put forth (Shajan et al. 2004, 2005, 2006). In 2004, trial excavations were undertaken at the site by the Centre for Heritage Studies and a preliminary culture-chronological sequence was proposed (Selvakumar et al. 2005; Shajan and Selvakumar 2006; Tomber 2005). Intensive and systematic surface surveys were undertaken at this site by Shinu Abraham in 2005 and 2006 (Abraham 2005, 2006). Against this backdrop, the research at Pattanam was initiated by the KCHR under the aegis of the Muziris Heritage Project of the Kerala Government.
