Register here - as a registered user you get more features and fewer ads.
The radiocarbon analysis at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, has put the antiquity of Pattanam to the first millennium BC.
What is more, the studies suggest that the canoe found in a water-logged trench at Pattanam canoe could be the earliest known canoe in India.
The five samples that were analysed include charcoal samples and parts of the wooden canoe and bollards recovered from trenches.
The mean calendar dates of these five samples place the antiquity of ancient maritime activity of Pattanam at about 500 BC.
The artefacts have revealed that the site had links with the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and South China Sea rims since the Early Historic Period of South India.
"Pattanam is the first habitation site of the Iron Age ever unearthed in Kerala. Since previous enquiries were confined to megalithic burials, no firm dates were available for the Iron Age, except a few like Mangadu (circa 1000 BC) and unnoni,” said P.J. Cherian, project director of Pattanam excavations.
The radiocarbon dates from Pattanam is therefore expected to help in understanding the Iron Age chronology of Kerala.
This is for the first time in the state, that radiocarbon analysis was done using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for an archaeological site.
This scientific dating was crucial for understanding the cultural sequence of the multi-cultural site which was active since the Iron Age.
The AMS analysis was undertaken by the scientists of the AMS Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, Orissa led by G.V. Ravi Prasad and Koushik Dutta.
The wood was identified as Artocarpus hirsutus (Anjily wood) and Tectona grandis (Teak wood), by the scientists of Kerala Forest Research Institute, Thrissur.
“The indigenous people seems to have settled on the site during the Iron Age when this area was covered by beach sand. The occupation has been sparse and the sand deposit has mostly black-and-red ware and other typical `megalithic’ pottery,” P.J Cherian.
The Archaeological Survey of India has granted licence to Project Director P.J. Cherian for a second consecutive season and the work is scheduled to begin in February 2008.
Besides the excavation activities at Pattanam, the licences are for archaeological exploration within 50 km around Kodungallur and underwater explorations in the water-bodies within 20 km radius.
The project undertaken by the KCHR in collaboration with the Southern Naval Command and State Archaeology Department will have K.Rajan of Pondicherry University, V.Selvakumar of Tamil University and K.P. Shajan as co-directors.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20080108221834&Page=O&Title=Thiruvananthapuram&Topic=0
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road