01Wheeler’s trenches
Mortimer Wheeler excavated here in 1945 and found Arretine ware, stamped red pottery made in Italy in the decades around the turn of the era, together with amphorae for Mediterranean wine and olive oil. Because the Italian pottery could be dated closely, it gave a fixed point for the Indian wares found with it. Jean-Marie Casal dug in 1947–50, and Vimala Begley’s work in 1989–92 showed the port was active before the Romans arrived, from about the 2nd century BCE.
02Poduke of the Periplus
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek sailing guide of the 1st century CE, lists a market town called Poduke on this coast, and most scholars identify it with Arikamedu. Its people made glass and stone beads in huge numbers, worked shell, and dyed cloth in brick tanks. Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions on pottery show local merchants alongside foreign ones. Little stands above ground today, but the site is protected by the ASI.
The life of this place
- c. 2nd century BCEThe settlement is already trading and making beads.
- 1945Mortimer Wheeler’s excavation finds Roman pottery.
- 1989–92Vimala Begley’s Indo-American excavations.
About 4 km south of Puducherry town. Finds are displayed in the Puducherry Museum.
