Author: Utpal Parashar
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: December 3, 2003
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_482436,0008.htm
A submerged coastal city near Poompuhar
in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, is the focus of a major expedition being conducted
jointly by the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) and the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI).
Both the organisations are trying
to piece together the city's past, which some noted marine archaeologists
consider to be the birthplace of modern civilisation. The once flourishing
port city is located about one mile off the Nagapattinam coast.
"We have been able to locate a section
of the city at a depth of 7 m and will soon start operations to recover
objects that will help ascertain its past," said Rear Admiral K.R. Srinivasan,
chief hydrographer to the Indian government.
English marine archaeologist Graham
Hancock, who conducted an underwater exploration in the area in 2001, believes
that the Poompuhar site could be older than Sumeria in Mesopotamia, where
modern civilisation is believed to have originated nearly 5,000 years ago.
The 2001 expedition was funded by
Channel Four of Britain and Learning Channel of the US in association with
the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa.
It led Hancock to surmise that the
city could have been submerged by a tidal wave as high as 400 ft somewhere
between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago.
Other experts like Glenne Milne,
a geologist at the University of Durham, UK, agree with Hancock. Video
footage of the site shows that the submerged city near Poompuhar was far
superior to constructions found in Harappan sites.
Although NIO had conducted similar
offshore expeditions in the area in the late 1980s and early 1990s - and
discovered objects like ring wells, brick structures and megalithic wares
- it did not evince much interest till Hancock revealed his findings.
The new venture by the INHD and
ASI may put an end to the debate on the submerged city. It could also rekindle
a new interest in locating other such submerged towns and shipwrecks along
India's coastline.
