Panaji, March 30: Scientists from city-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) have found artefacts near Dwarka island, off Gujarat coast, which indicate close links between Indian and Roman civilisations.
v"During the excavation, we found artefacts dating back 3,500 which indicate that India`s maritime history is much older and Indians used to travel by sea even before Vasco da Gama touched Indian shores," Dr K H Vora, Deputy Director and Project Leader, Marine Archaeology, told a news agency.
"Archaeological excavations at bet (island) Dwarka, which is western most part of India, also revealed an interesting cultural sequence commencing from pre-historic period (3800 years before present) to historical period (1600 before present)," he said.
"Interestingly, we came across amphorae shreds of Mediterranean origin. This indicated that Indian and Roman civilisations have similarities with each other through sea route," Vora stated.
NIO`s Marine Archaeology wing which is continuously exploring coasts of Somnath, Vijaydurg, Sindhudurg and Goa besides Dwarka, consider the revelation as a milestone in marine history.
NIO scientists, during their study on shoreline changes during last 2000 years on the Saurashtra coast of India, off-Gulf of Kutch, have encountered large number of stone anchors dating back two thousand years.
"That means, the stone anchors were used even before iron anchor came in use by the ships which were anchored off- Gujarat coast," Vohra stated.
The excavation around Dwarka and island Dwarka, both located 30 km from each other, by NIO, is going on since 1982, which was initiated by scientist S K Rao.
The work gained momentum in 2001-2002 when six trenches were dug at island Dwarka to unravel mysteries around this sealocked land mass, which is mythologically considered as summer palace of Lord Krishna.
"What is interesting is that we found few artefacts just 65 to 80 cms below the sea level," a s gaur, an archeologist, associated with the mission, stated.
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