Place · ancient port site · India
Pattanam Archaeological Site
The archaeological excavation site at Pattanam in Ernakulam district, Kerala, 25 kilometres north of Kochi — the leading candidate for identification with the ancient Muziris port named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st c. CE), Pliny, Ptolemy and the Peutinger Table as the chief entrepot for Roman trade with India. Excavations by the Kerala Council for Historical Research under P.J. Cherian from 2007-2015 yielded over 4.5 million artifacts: Roman amphorae (originally containing Mediterranean wine, olive oil and garum fish sauce), torpedo jars from the Persian Gulf, Chinese ceramics, carnelian intaglios, Roman-period Indo-Greek coinage, and gold ornaments. The site occupation dates range from 1000 BCE through the 10th century CE. The town's silting during the 1341 Kodungallur flood ended the Muziris trade.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 10.160, 76.200
Connections (2)
- Excavation of siteMuziris / Pattanam
Pattanam on the Periyar, excavated since 2007, is the leading candidate for the site of Muziris: Mediterranean amphorae, Roman glass, a wharf, a dugout canoe and beads in early historic levels, on a mound in the right general place. The identification is not settled and has been argued over sharply, partly because the excavation has been read politically. What is not in doubt is that a substantial Roman-period port stood here.
- Kerala BuddhistKarumadikkuttan, Alappuzha
The Karumadikkuttan, a ninth or tenth-century granite Buddha found in an Alappuzha paddy field with part of its left side broken away, is one of very few survivals of the Buddhist phase of Kerala — a period attested in place-names, in the Manimekalai, and in a scatter of images, and otherwise almost erased. The Pattanam and Muziris trade world it belonged to is the context in which Buddhism reached this coast at all.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Pattanam”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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