Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology (No.4, 2007)

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The fourth number of the Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology (JIOA 4, 2007) is a little late in the day. However, there is virtue in patience when one is soliciting contributions, especially from excavators. Most of the articles are fresh from the field. The cover shows the remains of a dugout canoe at the base of a trench at the site of Fattanam on the Malabar coast of Kerala. Pattanam, which in all probability was part of the great harbour of Muziris mentioned in the Greek sea guide Periplus Maris Erythraei (1" century CE) and other Greco-Roman accounts of the early centuries CE, is being excavated by the Kerula Council of Historical Research under the able guidance of Professor. P.J. Cherian. Besides the Roman ceramics at Pattanam, the discovery of a piece of Nabataean painted pottery - the first in India - is noteworthy. In similar time scale is the report of excavations at Junnar by Vasant Shinde and his team from the Deccan College, Pune. Junnar lies in the vicinity of the famous Naneghat Pass. Naneghat was vitally important for commerce between the Deccan highlands and the Konkan coast in the time of the Satavahanas (2nd century BCE-3 century CE). The recovery of a Roman amphora fragment and Persian Gulf ceramics from Junnar links this inland site with the same Indian Ocean trade networks that served Pattanam. Alexia Pavan's preliminary report on Indian trade potteries found at the ancient harbour of Sumhuram/Khor Rori in Oman (Moscha Limen of the Periplus) widens the picture. Sumhuram has yielded ceramics which may well have originated at Pattanam and Junnar. The fragment of fine Rouletted Ware indicates Sumhurum's links with the eastern Indian coastland. Eivind Seland's comparative study of taxation laws in Egypt, south Arabia and India in the BCE - CE transition points to a 'pan-oceanic' regulation of international trade. Gaur and his colleagues report the results of thermo-luminescence (TL) dating of potshards from a 2 millennium BCE settlement on the Saurashtra coast. The dates are crucial in the context of the debate on the so- called 'dark age' that supposedly enveloped western India after the collapse of the Harappan civilization around 1800 BCE. Atusha Bharucha Irani follows up by offering insights into the Early Historic settlements of the Porbandar area. Shifting focus to the eastern Indian Ocean, we have Satyamurthy's results of his recent excavations at Adichchanallur, the enigmatic Iron Age site on the Coromandel coast of the Bay of Bengal. Satyamurthy's excavations, exactly hundred years after Alexander Rea's prospections, have revealed various types of jar burials which hint at connections with the jar burial tradition of Southeast Asia and the Far East. Also interesting are TL dates which place Adichchanallur in the 2 millennium BCE. Raj Somadeva and hi colleagues have discovered unique earthenware burial canoes at the village Ranchamadam In the Sabaragamuva province of Sri Lanka. The radiocarbon dates are awaited. Sergey Lapte attempts to interpret the bead and other antiquities from the Phum Snay site in Cambodia i the light of Brahmanical kingdoms which rose in the region during the 12th century CE.

Hopefully, this number of the JIOA will attract more readership, subscriptions and inspire scholars to contribute to forthcoming issues.