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Ajay Agnihotri

Thank you. Great information

Ajay Agnihotri

Excavations at the site have uncovered substantial evidence of a Roman trading settlement including amphorae, lamps, glassware, coins, beads made of stone, glass and gold, and gems. Based on these finds it appears the settlement engaged in considerable trade with the Roman and later Byzantine world during an extensive period from the 2nd century BCE to the 8th century CE. In addition to this trade Arikamedu was also a centre of manufacture in its own right producing textiles, particularly the cotton fabric muslin, jewellery, stone, glass, and gold beads (for which the settlement was particularly renowned). Many distinctive wares have been uncovered which clearly pre-date Roman exchange including products made locally such as shells, beads and pottery indicating a flourishing local craft tradition before the arrival of foreign influences. Some of the most significant finds from this site of Silk Roads exchange include Indo-Pacific beads, red and black ceramics, and large stones used to mark graves, all of which pre-date its history as a trading post.  

The considerable amount of pottery that has been uncovered at Arikamedu can be categorised into three different types, ‘Arretine’ ware named for the Roman city Arezzo in Tuscany where it was produced and imported, amphorae, and rouletted ware, a decorative pottery characterised by an engraved rim on a grey or black surface covered in spiral linear patterns. The rouletted ware has been the subject of much study as later excavations in the 1990s demonstrated that, contrary to earlier scholarship which believed rouletted ware to have been imported from the West, this pottery was actually produced locally, if not at Arikamedu itself then somewhere in South Asia. Despite these findings, the rouletted ware found at Arikamedu often reveals a distinctive foreign influence, most likely from its contacts with Rome, which was blended with local styles. Additionally, it is possible that craftsmen from the Roman world lived and worked at workshops in Arikamedu as two gemstones called intaglio (a distinctive style of engraved gem and major luxury art form in the Ancient World) featuring designs frequently used by Greco-Roman gem cutters have been uncovered at the site**

** UNESCO website

Advikram

Thank you sir for a detailed account 🙏