gems, ancient trade, commerce, Rome, India

The history of Indo-Roman or Indian Ocean trade on the Malabar Coast has traditionally been dominated by literary accounts because of the lack of archaeological evidence. In the absence of evidence for ports and settlements, no significant progress could be achieved in the understanding of the role of this important region, strategic both for distributing local products such as pepper to the Mediterranean and as a transshipment point for goods such as gems from the interior of India. What was intriguing in this context was that despite the discovery of characteristic Indian ceramics, including Rouletted ware, in regions as far as Egypt in the West (Tomber 2000) and Indonesia in the East (Walker and Santoso 1977), Kerala has drawn a blank for such material remains, until the identification of Pattanam. A well-established view has located the ancient port of Muziris – an important commercial port discussed by both Greco-Roman authors (including the Periplus Maris Erythraei, Casson 1989: 296) and the indigenous Sangam Tamil texts (Akananuru 149 in Zvelebil 1973: 35, n. 1; Champakalakshmi 1996: 120–2) – at Kodungallur (Cranganore) on the northern bank of the river Periyar (Gurukkal and Whittaker 2001). Against this background the research undertaken at the site of Pattanam has, for the first time, brought out interesting material evidence for Indo-Roman trade in Kerala, as well as indicating a different location for ancient Muziris. This paper discusses the geological, archaeological and toponymical evidence that support Pattanam as the site of the ancient port of Muziris.