Seafaring in Ancient Sri Lanka The untold story of long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean more than 2,000 years ago by Andrew Lawler Deep beneath the sea off the NE BRIGHT DECEMBER morning in 2003, fishermen B.G. Preminda southern coast and R.P. Sunil were diving for conchs and lobsters in about 100 feet of Sri Lanka, of water some two miles off the southern coast of the island nation a diver exam- of Sri Lanka, near the small port town of Godavaya. Instead of ines a pottery vessel from the shellfish, however, they spotted the rim of a giant ceramic jar pok- oldest known ing out of the sandy seabed. They headed for the surface and noted shipwreck in the the location on their GPS device. A week later, the divers returned for another look Indian Ocean. Oand this time discovered a small, bench-shaped stone carved with the image of a fish. Preminda and Sunil, who have been diving together since the pottery that had been brought up, they confirmed that the watery highway down, and only with the arrival of Europeans Much like later Christian medieval monasteries in Europe, they were boys, decided to tell German archaeologist Oliver shipwreck the fishermen had stumbled on was indeed the old- to the island and neighboring coasts in the sixteenth century these Buddhist complexes were important economic centers Kessler about the find. Kessler was excavating Godavaya’s est yet discovered in the Indian Ocean. According to Osmund did it fade in importance. Despite this rich history, little is in the early centuries A.D. “Buddhism looked favorably upon ancient Buddhist monastery on a high promontory overlook- Bopearachchi, a Sri Lankan–born French historian who has known about the dawn of Indian Ocean trade. trade activities,” says Bopearachchi. Thousands of Roman and ing the Indian Ocean, and he paid them a small sum to bring helped organize the excavations, the find is revolutionizing Godavaya’s small harbor is located at the mouth of the Indian coins have surfaced among several monastic sites, villages, up the stone, asking them not to disturb anything else on the our understanding of ancient maritime trade in South Asia. Walawe River, one of Sri Lanka’s few navigable waterways. Trad- and rice paddies along the Walawe. “The earliest donors and bottom. Soon after, the artifact was consigned to a storage ers brought raw materials and manufactured goods from the important patrons of Buddhist establishments of South Asia,” facility. The German team was busy with their dig, and Sri HE GODAVAYA WRECK lies on Sri Lanka’s curving large settlements upriver to the harbor for transport across the he adds, “were caravan merchants and wealthy seafaring trad- Lankan maritime archaeologists had their hands full excavating southern shore. Ancient voyagers typically avoided the Indian Ocean beginning at least 2,000 years ago, says Senarath ers.” An ancient scroll from Afghanistan says that the Buddha a shipwreck in the harbor of the nearby city of Galle. Ttreacherous shallow waters separating Sri Lanka from Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s director general of archaeology. Hints himself was a merchant who sailed the ocean in a previous life. The two fishermen, however, kept an eye on the site. For- India to the north, so coast-hugging ships moving between the of this, confirming Godavaya’s status as a significant port, were Archaeological teams working deeper in the interior in the tunately, the devastating 2004 tsunami left it undisturbed. eastern and western halves of the Indian Ocean sailed past this revealed when the German team that began work at the Gota past decade have found that the island may also have been Finally, in 2008, the work in Galle complete, Sri Lankan strategic spot. The teardrop-shaped island has long been the Pabbata Rajamaha Vihara monastery in Godavaya two decades an industrial powerhouse. Greek and Roman texts mention researchers briefly examined the Godavaya wreck with Pre- pivot between these halves, and its names in multiple languages ago found the first clear proof of the port’s international role. iron and steel exports from the Indian subcontinent, and minda and Sunil’s help. They brought up pottery that appeared throughout history hint at its prominent role in ancient trade A second-century A.D. rock inscription carved in the ancient India’s iron production industry began as early as 1500 B.C. to be several thousand years old, suggesting that the ship might networks. Our word “serendipity” comes from the Arabic word script of Brahmi, which was used in India beginning in about At least some of that metal, however, may have originated be far older than any previously found Indian Ocean wreck. for the island, Serendib. Called Lanka-dipa by Indians, Tapro- the fifth centuryB .C., states that the port’s custom duties col- in Sri Lanka, and then been sent to India for wider distribu- Seeking international collaboration for such an ancient, bane by Greeks, Ceylon by Europeans, and Pa-Outchow—“isle lected in the name of the king were donated to the monastery tion. Hundreds of massive slag heaps left over from iron and The ancient shrine in the small port of Godavaya (above) of gems”—by the Chinese, Sri Lanka coalesced into a kingdom Underwater archaeologists (above) examine a mass of fused steel production facilities dating as far back as the last few overlooks the site of the shipwreck and is still a sacred spot in the sixth century B.C. “Sri Lanka” itself means “resplendent material, mostly the remains of iron bars that once made up centuries B.C. dot the island’s highlands. One heap alone for local Buddhists. B.G. Preminda (above, right), one of the the bulk of the Godavaya ship’s ancient cargo. By removing 150 12 two fishermen who first discovered the wreck and who is now island” in Sanskrit. Archaeologists have found cinnamon in ceramic vessels for further study (above, right), the team was extends more than feet in length and is feet high, and a part of the excavation team, suits up for his dive. distant Egyptian tombs and in Phoenician flasks that may have able to confirm that the ship dated to sometime between the is evidence that thousands of tons of iron were produced at had its origin on the island’s lush plantations. second and first centuries b.c. the site between 400 and 200 B.C. In the third century B.C., the islanders embraced Buddhism fragile, and potentially important site, the Sri Lankans turned when the new faith arrived from India, but they resisted ITUATED ON AN isolated reef, the Godavaya wrecks lies to Deborah Carlson, president of the Institute of Nautical repeated attempts by Indian rulers to dominate their rich trop- for its upkeep. Along with several ancient statues of Buddha, the scattered over an area roughly half the size of a football Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University, an organization ical land. Documents from both Rome and China record that excavators found the remains of a customs office. In this room Sfield. Most of the hull likely disintegrated long ago, but at with long experience excavating ancient Mediterranean ships. Sri Lankan kings sent ambassadors to these faraway courts in they discovered clay seals carved with a lion that had been used the center of the site is a massive, 60-foot-long jumble of fused Carlson has a strong interest in exploring sunken vessels in the first centuryB .C. This era marked the beginning of vibrant to stamp merchandise to certify that merchants had paid their material surrounded by a scatter of broken pots, glass, and stone the vast Indian Ocean since, in classical times, it linked the and widespread Indian Ocean trade that reached a peak in import duties to the government. The German team also found artifacts. The mass is made up mostly of minerals, a sample of Mediterranean with China. Unlike the overland Silk Road that medieval times when African, Arabian, Indian, Indonesian, and Roman coins from the early centuries A.D., further attesting to which was taken back to Texas A&M for analysis. Test results crossed the steppes and deserts far to the north, this maritime Chinese sailors used the seasonal monsoon winds to transform foreign trade. On the beach below, the excavators unearthed confirmed the presence of iron and copper, suggesting that the highway has until now been largely invisible in the archaeologi- this sea into a corridor for spices, cotton, rice, gold, precious stone pillars, some more than 10 feet long, that were once part mass is partially composed of the remnants of iron that rusted cal record and is glimpsed only rarely in historical documents. stones, and slaves. These were the seas sailed by the mythical of a pier or landing jetty. Nearby they identified the ancient away, leaving behind minerals that preserve the outline of what When the team radiocarbon dated bits of wood to between Sinbad. Unlike the northern land route across Central Asia, stone quarry that likely was the source of the jetty material. A clearly was the principal cargo. “They look like ingots or bars the second century B.C. and first century A.D., and analyzed neither Chinese emperors nor brigands could ever shut this triangular stone anchor was also found just offshore. of stacked iron,” says Laura White, the divemaster for the 44 ARCHAEOLOGY • November/December 2014 www.archaeology.org 45 2014 season cosponsored by Dissanayake’s department One of the unusual objects found on the wreck was a large metal and INA. The mass also includes bits of wood and ring that may have been part of the other objects that were carbon dated to about ship’s rigging hardware.