"It is evident from the excavations that good ideas, technology and other creative expressions accompanied the movement of people across geographical zones, often crossing socio-cultural boundaries," Dr P J Cherian, Director, Pattanam Excavations and the Kerala Council for Historical Research, said at a seminar at the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale here.
Cherian, who specialises in excavations, said a significant portion of objects unearthed from Pattanam is non- local in provenance, having reached the land-locked hamlet that housed the ancient Muziris port located around the Periyar delta of present-day Ernakulam district in central Kerala from various regions of Asia, Africa and Europe.
In his presentation, he briefly introduced the archaeological record of Pattanam to discuss the possible cultural pluralism in antiquity.
"The range of excavated material objects indicates fields of incommensurability and co-existence between different logics and levels of exchange," he said. (More)
