National Institute of Oceanography: Marking the beginning of marine archaeology in India

Brick jetty from Kaveripattinam: reconstructing historyLast month when a team of oceanographers sailed from the Thanjavur coast in Tamil Nadu to make a hydrographic survey of Kaveripattinam, the submerged ancient port city of the Chola era, it marked the beginning of a science unexplored in India: marine archaeology.With it the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Panjim, the country's premier oceanographic research laboratory, embarked on its ambitious project of making marine archaeological surveys of the Indian coastline. Kaveripattinam is only one of the many ancient cities under the sea that the NIO plans to excavate after it scientifically maps the ruins.Two other sites: the historic Dwarka in Gujarat and Udayavara in Karnataka have also been slated for excavation. Apart from these the institute is planning a detailed survey of hundreds of shipwrecks along the coast and will try to salvage a few of them. Goa has been chosen as the first site for this.Said well-known archaeologist S.R. Rao, who is the project coordinator: "These studies are vitally important for reconstructing India's history. Unlike the archaeological sites on land, the underwater ones lie undisturbed and undoubtedly contain more antiquities. Not only will this type of underwater archaeological surveys help us understand our ancestors' migration routes and cultural origins but they will also show us how people struggled to overcome the dangers of the sea. Also the behaviour of the sea through the ages, like erosion and sedimentation can be understood and used to forecast the trend for the centuries to come." With its twin programme of excavating ancient port cities and salvaging shipwrecks the team has a hard task ahead. After a hydrographic survey the entire area will be photographed. Since many of the ruins may be covered with vegetation or silt, underwater photography is a highly complicated job. Fortunately the NIO has sufficiently sophisticated underwater cameras.Excavations will be a problem, not for lack of special equipment, but for lack of personnel. The institute will have to train divers to carry out excavations. Although many foreign companies have offered to send their divers the institute has refused for security reasons.Clues To History: Rao is confident that when the divers excavate these submerged cities they will find clues to the type of civilisations that existed and the cause of their decline. Kaveripattinam was chosen as the first site for exploration because the Tamil Nadu Government was particularly keen on excavating it. In fact the NIO could start immediately because the state Government agreed to sponsor the project. Rao has already done some work on Kaveripattinam: 12 years ago he excavated an ancient brick jetty of the city. Around 300 D. C. Kaveripattinam was a flourishing international port from which the seafaring Cholas embarked on their long trading voyages both to the East and the West. Because of a sudden storm the city may have been flooded and a part of it still remains buried under layers of sand just off the shore.The team is bristling with excitement over its plan to excavate shipwrecks. India with its vast coastline and hoary past was a seapower up to the 17th century. Even a casual glance over old records reveal that hundreds of ships sank in Indian waters-in natural calamities more often than in naval battles. Rao: hard task aheadPortugese records reveal that in April 1648 a storm destroyed 12 ships in Goa's Aguada Bay. In the 18th century more than 2,000 ships were wrecked when a powerful hurricane struck the Hooghly Bay. Quite often they carried cargo containing precious metals and works of art.Salvaging shipwrecks will be an even more difficult proposition than uncovering the cities. The old documents do not give the exact location of shipwrecks and a lot of library research will have to be done before salvages are possible.Naval hydrographic maps show some of these wrecks but only those that are found in depths less than 30 metres as these could be dangerous for ships docking in the harbours. The main task of the team will be to correlate wrecks mentioned in the archives with those shown on the maps. Then a sonar and magnetometric survey will have to be done to locate the wrecks. After they are photographed divers will be sent to determine which wrecks are worth salvaging. The NIO hopes to complete its survey and come up with some definite results within a year. Said a hopeful Rao: "Who knows we may come up with some astonishing findings."Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 29, 2013 11:34 IST--- ENDS ---

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National Institute of Oceanography: Marking the beginning of marine archaeology in India

Last month when a team of oceanographers sailed from the Thanjavur coast in Tamil Nadu to make a hydrographic survey of Kaveripattinam, the submerged ancient port city of the Chola era, it marked the beginning of a science unexplored in India: marine archaeology.

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