One of the oldest remains of the ports in Goa found by the scientist which is supposed to be existed between, 1,000 to 3,500 BC which makes it India’s oldest ports. According to the news published by PTI “Scientists in the country have found remnants of a historically important port on Goa’s Zuari river which is expected to be amongst the oldest signs of human trade on the central west coast and may be contemporary to Dwarka in Gujarat”. The researchers are also of the opinion that they may discover a dockyard similar in structure to Lothal dockyard in Gujarat which was discovered by Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1954.
According to the available information Goa based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has been working on 1.2KM long wall along the Zuari River just few kms away from the capital city of Goa is expected to be a part of one of the oldest ports in India which existed anywhere between, 1000 to 3500 BC that is currently buried. “This area was earlier known as Gopakapattinam. The exploration work on the site is done and scientists have found the steps going in the water. It is imminent that existence of such a big wall parallel to river indicates that it is remnant of a port,” said Rajiv Nigam, head of Marine Archaeology unit of CSIR-NIO.
This is going to be the biggest discovery in Goa as well as in India. According to the scientists there is a existence of cross walls which stands inundated in the water, they said they will be submitting the proposal to Ministry for further help in research “We will now be submitting proposal to the Ministry of Earth Sciences and/or Goa government to conduct further detailed exploration of this site,” Nigam added. He said that they will need to Conduct Radiocarbon and Thermo-luminance dating to find out the correct age of this ancient port. “Also to unearth other buried structures, we want to do ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey in sandy beach area and seismic surveys in offshore area,” he said.
Nigam also assured that is they get proposal sanctioned then they will do further studies, according to him this port might be older than Murmugao port exiting in the state.”If we get the proposal sanctioned, we will be able to conduct entire study within two years. This can be a major tourist attraction in Goa,” Nigam said, adding till date only Gujarat is known for its ancient cities.
The researcher said that the port might be older than Murmugao Port existing in the State. The initial observations have concluded that this port might be connected to Old Goa, ancient capital of Goa, through ‘Rajvidhi’ (Road built and used for the King). “If the project comes through it will be big discovery for central west coast of India. This was a very flourishing harbour of ancient time,” he added. The scientist feels that there are many such ports submerged on the western coast and discovery of this is just a beginning.
Source PTI
