ARIKAMEDU IS AN INDIAN CITY

ARIKAMEDU IS A NATIVE’S CREATION NOT WESTERN CREATION Extracts from Rome and India Edited by Prof. Vimala Bagley and Richard D.Puma Published by University of Wisconsin, USA. The author of Periplus mentions “Poduke” on the Coramandel coast which is believed to be Arikamedu as one of the Emporia on the Eastern coast of India. IMPORTS TO ARIKAMEDU Amphora Jars Cups and Plates of Terra Sigallata Ceramic Lamps Unguentaria ( Vessel for holding perfumed oil or unguen) Blue glazed Faience ( Tin glazed or decorated earthen ware or pottery originally made in Faenza in Italy) Glass Bowls Gems The most common imported items was amphora Jars Ms. Will identified following pieces of imports from Mediterranean Pieces of containers for wine from Kos, Knidos and Rhodes ( 1 BC to 1 AD) Spanish Jars for Garum Sauce and Olive oil. Olive jars from Istrian Peninsula in the Northern Adriatic sea An important result of Comfort’s study of the stamps on Terra Sigillata is that the “Italian Sigallata at Arikamedu is NOT necessarily a product of Arezzo , but was manufactured in different workshops. The Sigillata at Arikamedu is thus NOT a homogenous group which could have been shipped from one single source of manufacture . the shipping must have been the outcome of some process of selection in Mediterranean . WHO WERE THE CUSTOMERS? “If the graffito on the piece from the Musee Guimet ( Paris) is in an Iron age form of making an is a sign of ownership , some users of Sigillata at Arikamedu may have been from Tamil society” The Periplus mentions that wine was exported to Indian market ( DME 49.56) Reference on Yavanas or Westerners in Tamil literature ( Puram 50 Volume 16:21 from Zvelebil:402) “ having increased the joy by giving to the girls of shining bangles , who every day have taken in hands vessels beautified by gold to drink the cool fragrant wine brought by Yavanas in beautiful bowls” EXPORTS FROM ARIKAMEDU Textiles Beads of semi precious stones, glass, plant and Gems Bangles from shell IDENTITY OF TRADERS & REGULATIONS OF TRADE AT ARIKAMEDU The overseas trade was initiated and controlled by Roman subjects. Greco- Roman involvement in the trade is almost certain from the findings . Furthermore, pottery suggests that some westerners may have resided at Arikamedu on a long terms basis. From the finds it is difficult to gauge what was the strength of the western population might have been at any time ; or what role westerners had in the trade. From the Pazzolana cement it can be inferred that Roman subjects had a role in the building of Port city. But it is apparent that the architecture of Arikamedu is not Greco Roman. The imported pottery, including Amphora forms a mere fraction of one percent of the pottery at the site and even pottery which seem to evolve from western prototypes is limited amount. The imports and derivatives from imports reflects the presence , perhaps needs of westerners but not a larger scale. THE WESTERNERS IN ARIKAMEDU WERE MIDDLE MEN? On the basis of Periplus, Lionel Casson in several of his recent publications proposed that western ships did not , at least on a regular basis, sail to the East Coast of India. The merchants and Rome and Egypt bought eastern products from Malabar. The forwarding of merchandise between the two coasts were in local vessels (Casson 1989.16 n 24:25) . In order to reconcile the evidence of Western residents in Arikamedu and Kaveripattinam with that of Periplus Casson suggests that westerners residing on the east coast were chiefly middle men engaged in forwarding goods to their associate on the Malabar coast and not all the way to Egypt . Question: If the western merchant could procure goods from Malabar ports why would they reside at Eastern Coast Arikamedu which is quite far? TRADE WITH THE EASTERN COUNTRIES ( SOUTH EAST ASIA) The eastern coastal trade networks suggest that Coramandel sailors were navigating in the waters of the bay of Bengal through Palk straits and around the Adams Bridge. They were quite likely sailing to the Malabar coast as well. Archeological evidences strongly suggests that the sailors from Coramandel coast ventured out to sail in the open sea. The excavations and the studies in Bali ( Indonesia) strongly indicate the uniformity in material design and pattern of pottery between the two regions. ARIKAMEDU IS A NATIVE’S CREATION NOT WESTERN CREATION All the evidences strongly suggest that the incentive for the growth of Arikamedu as a major port of the Coramandel coast in the ancient period may have come , in past , at least , from within the Tamil community. HOME

Sir Mortimer Wheelers Excavation Summary

Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s report on Arikamedu

Summary & Relevance

Archeological Survey of India conducted a short but intensive excavation the burning months April, May and June 1945.

Arikamedu represents the site of a considerable buried town on the Coramandel coast. Two sectors , Northern and Southern excavated in 1945 and partially uncovered by previous excavators were found to have been extensively despoiled for bricks in the middle ages and later. The Northern sector contained the remains of a substantial structure upwards of 150 feet long, built about 50 AD, on the former foreshore above vaguer vestiges of earlier occupation extending perhaps over half a century. The building from its site and character identified as a warehouse, must from the outset have been liable to flooding, and was abandoned at an early date. The southern sector on the other hand comprised a site which stood some ten feet above flood level, and was occupied for a hundred years or more from the middle of the first century AD onwards.

Its principal structures consisted of two walled courtyards associated with carefully built tanks supplied and drained by a series of culverts. It is conjectured that these tanks and courtyards were used in the preparation of the Muslin cloth which has from ancient times been a notable product of this part of India and is recorded by classical writers as Indian export. .

Amongst the other industries of the town was that of bead making. Gold, semi precious stones, and glass were used for this purpose, and two gems carved with intaglio designs by Greco Roman gem cutters and in one instance untrimmed , suggests the presence of Western craftsmen on the site.

Numerous sherds of both of a red-glazed pottery known to have been made in Italy in the first centuries of BC- AD, and of the two handled jars or Amphorae characteristic of the Mediterranean wine-trade of the period, together with Roman lamps and glass ware , combine to indicate that Arikamedu was one of the regular “Yavanas” or Western trading stations of which both Greco-Roman and ancient Tamil writers speak.

As the first of these stations actually identified by excavations in India , Arikamedu will hold henceforth a distinguished position in the history of the economic relations with the outside world.

A Roman market on the Coramandel coast implies a knowledge of the south western monsoon, which the historians may now suppose to have been in regular use at an earlier date than was previously conjectured. The epigraphists and paleographic will find amongst the graffiti some of the earliest dated fragments of the Tamil language . To the geographer , the very considerable rise in water-level shown to have occurred hereabouts within the last two thousand years , though due at least in part to local causes, is perhaps of incidental note.

The most significant result of the excavation is that by establishing at last a précised chronological position of an extensive south Indian culture , the archeologist has provided a new starting point for the study of the pre medieval civilizations of the Indian peninsula .

Chapter 1

The Site and Its Historical Background

The classical geographers and Sangam literature have familiarized the historians with the outlines of an ancient trade existed between India and West during and after first century AD . At its prime time ;

The Indian exports were

1. Pepper

2. pearls

3. gem-stones

4. muslin

5. tortoise shell

6.ivory

7. silk

And Imports to India were

1. Coral
2. Lead
3. copper
4. tin
5. glass
6. vases
7. lamps
8. wine
9. coined money

This trade was NOT organized on lines like those of the European ‘factories’ established in India from 16^th century .The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ( AD 60-100) and Ptolemy ( AD150-) fairly described as treaty-ports.

Under these treaties “permanent lodges of Western traders were settled in Indian ports under formal agreement with the appropriate Indian ruler and were visited at the proper seasons by convoys of deep- sea merchantmen.

The literary sources on Roma Indian trade acknowledges the fact that the ships sailed from Myos Homos, on of the most important harbor ports in the Red Sea during the Roman rule of Egypt to Indian port cities for trade.

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