Imperial Rome, Indian Ocean Regions and Muziris: New Perspectives on Maritime Trade
Contents: 1. Introduction/K.S. Mathew. 2. Reconstructing networks of trade and exchange in the Indian ocean during the early historic period: case studies from Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)/Robin Coningham, Mark Manuel and Jo Shoebridge. 3. Local networks and long-distance trade: the role of the exchanges between Sri Lanka and India during the Mediterranean trade/Ariane De Saxce. 4. From the Mediterranean to South Asia: The Odyssey of an Indiana Merchant in Roman times/Steven E. Sidebotham. 5. Wars, trade and treaties: new, revised and neglected sources for the political, diplomatic, and Military aspects of imperial Rome’s relations with the Red Sea basin and India, from Augustus to Diocletian/Michael A. Speidel. 6. Roman ports on the red sea and their contacts with Africa, Arabia and South Asia: ancient literary and recent archaeological evidence/Steven E. Sidebotham. 7. The port of Sumhuram (Khor Rori): new data on its history/Alessandra Avanzini. 8. South Arabian pottery outside South Arabia/Vittoria Buffa. 9. Maritime trade contacts of Odisha, East Coast of India, with the Roman World: An appraisal/Sila Tripati, Sunil Kumar Patnaik and Gopal Charan Pradhan. 10. Assessing the early historic Indian Ocean trade through ceramics/K. Krishnan and R. Ballavally. 11. Ancient ports of Kerala: an overview/V. Selvakumar. 12. International maritime trade: evidences from Vizhinjam excavations, South Kerala/Ajit Kumar, S.V. Rajesh, Abhayan G.S., Vinod V. and Sujana Stephen. 13. Examining the hinterland and foreland of the port of Muziris in the wider perspective of the subcontinents long-distance networks/Ranabir Chakravarti. 14. Muziris and the trajectories of maritime trade in the Indian Ocean in the first Millennium CE/Pius Malekandathil. 15. A Muziris export: Schidai or ivory trimmings/Federico De Romanis. 16. The Roman pottery from Pattanam/Roberta Tomber. 17. Money matters: indigenous and foreign coins in the Malabar coast (Second Century BCE-Second Century CE)/Susmita Basu Majumdar. Bibliogrpahy. Index.
The battle of Actium waged in 31 BCE and the annexation of Egypt in 30 BCE to the Roman Empire opened up avenues for increased commercial contacts between the Roman Empire and South Asia in general and India in particular.
As Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79 CE) qualifies, Muziris was the premier emporium of India. Periplus written between 80 CE and 90 CE locates Muziris on the South-Western coast of India, South of Tyndis and north of Nelcynda and Becare in the Kingdom of Cerabothara on the Malabar coast. The reference in the Tamil Sangam literature indicates that Muziris was situated on the banks of the river Periyar emptying itself into the Arabian Sea. The fourth century (CE) Peutingerian table also points out the location of Muziris in the lower Periyar Valley. Till the end of the 1990s Cranganore or Kodungalloor in Trichur district was identified as Muziris of course without any material evidence.
For this much anticipated volume quite a few eminent scholars from the USA, Switzerland, United Kingdom, France, Italy and from many Universities in India were invited to share their researches on the maritime trade in the Indian Ocean region in the early historic period against the backdrop of the commercial activities of imperial Rome and Muziris, making it invaluable for scholars of ancient and maritime history. (jacket)
