May 29, 2014
Was Pattanam an urban trade centre?
‘Ivory from Muziris’, a research paper published this year by noted epigraphist and scholar of Roman history Federico De Romanis contends that ‘Muziris Papyrus’, a significant document on the Indo-Roman trade, contains monetary evaluation of three quarters of an Indian cargo loaded on a ship, Hermapollon.
Among the listed cargo transported by the vessel from the ancient port of Muziris to the Mediterranean were 167 elephant tusks weighing 3,228.5 kg and schidai, arguably fragmented tusks of inferior value, weighing 538.5 kg. Read more.