These are conclusive evidence that even centuries before the dawn of Christian era, Kerala's teak found its way across continents. Teak was used for manufacturing ships in the Battle of Trafalgar that brought victory to Nelson.
Historian A Sreedhara Menon from Kerala wrote in his book The Survey ofKerala History that “it was the demand for pepper of Kerala that brought European powers like the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the English to Kerala coast and led to the establishment of European domination of the country”.
Aromatic plants and spices of Kerala attracted the attention of foreigners from time immemorial. It was pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger that largely filled our export basket while we got gold in return. The ancientgateway that facilitated such trading was neither Kochi nor Calicut but Muziris, which is now linked to Kodungallur in Ernakulam district.
Recently, worldwide attention was again focused on the destroyed seaport of Muziris following excavations done by a team of scientists led by Dr Alberta Tomer in Pattanam near to Kodungallur.
They had unearthed Chera and Roman coins, a bead chain and Roman artefacts in the sub-soil behind Mahadeva temple in a house owned by Rajagopal, an employee of Hindustan Machine Tools. Tower was assisted by Dr Selva Kumar, Dr Shajan and P K Gopi. The find attracted international attention and some claimed that Pattanam was indeed Muziris.
Kerala government had last year constituted a Muziris heritage project and directed Kerala Council of Historical Research (KCHR) to conduct further excavations. However, P J Cherian, director of KCHR, told Commodity Market that it was impossible to conclude from available evidence that Pattanam was indeed Muziris.
It is true that traders and merchants stayed in the place but the area and infrastructure is too small to accommodate a major port like Muziris. The area between Kodungallur and Cheranallur is the most likely place of Muziris, he added.
KCHR director said that further excavations beginning from February 2008 may come up with more evidence of maritime activities of ancient times. KCHR exploration so far has revealed that maritime activity in the region was as old as BC 500. Pattanam could have had links with the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the South China Sea since ancient times.
WHAT LED TO THE FALL OF MUZIRIS?
Any historian or anyone connected with spices cannot help wondering what would have happened to Kerala and also India if the sea-faring merchants had not identified the Muziris port. Muziris is referred to as Murachipattanam in the Valmiki Ramayana, as Muchiri in Tamil Nadu and as Muzirikode in the Jewish Copper Plate of Bhaskara Ravi Varman (1000 AD).
Pepper formed the bulk of West-bound cargo from Kerala. “Though Roman trade declined from 5th century AD, Muzuris continued to enjoy its old commercial prosperity as it attracted the attention of other nationalities, particularly the Chinese till the flooding in Periyar river in 1341, which choked the mouth of the harbour of Muziris,” Sreedharan Menon wrote in his book. The destruction of Muziris proved a blessing for Cochin port and Calicut.
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