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Excavation to discover Tamil Nadu's trade link with Rome begins

  • A large-scale excavation has begun at Alagankulam in Ramanathapuram district.
  • The five-month long excavation is expected to unearthed important maritime trade connected between this port city and Rome.
Excavation in Alagankulam Tamil Nadu begins

On May 9, the Tamil Nadu state archaeological department started the excavation works at Alagankulam village in Ramanathapuram district. Earlier excavation on this spot unearthed some valuable antiquities, and now, the archaeologists engaging in the excavation believe that they will find more evidence of trade connection between Tamil Nadu and Rome in this five-month long endeavour.

The excavation will last for five months until September and officials are planning to dig around 30 to 35 trenches in this area, a leading daily reported. Total eight archaeologists consist the team headed by J Bhaskar. 70 labourers will be engaged in digging the place, The New Indian Express quoted the Deputy Director of State Archaeology Department, R Sivanantham, as confirming. The excavation was launched by the district collector, S Natarajan. According to an earlier report, the state government sanctioned ₹55 lakh for this latest excavation. 

Apart from Alagankulam, there are other places located in the long coastline where prominent evidence of buried settlements has been found during excavations. 

The previous excavation at Alagankulam unearthed Roman coins, ornaments, bangles made from ivory, glass beads, pottery and pot shreds having Tamil-Brahmi scripts. This time the state archaeological department is hoping to find more evidence of the Roman connection.

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