Tue Mar 25 18:28:30 UTC 2025: ## Tamil Nadu to Launch Deep-Sea Excavations at Ancient Port City of Poompuhar
**Chennai, March 26, 2025** – The Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) will undertake a series of deep-sea archaeological excavations off the coast of Poompuhar, the ancient port city and capital of the early Cholas, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu announced in the 2025-26 state budget. The first phase will focus on the area between Poompuhar and Nagapattinam.
This ambitious project aims to uncover treasures and shed light on Poompuhar’s rich maritime history, a city mentioned extensively in Sangam literature and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The city, believed to have existed 2,500 years ago, is thought to have submerged due to tidal action.
This is not the first attempt to explore Poompuhar’s submerged past. Previous surveys conducted in the 1980s by the TNSDA and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), utilizing sonar and other technologies, revealed various structures at depths of 20-30 meters. Subsequent explorations, detailed in previous reports in *The Hindu*, uncovered shipwrecks, megalithic structures, brick formations, and other artifacts, dating back to the 2nd century BCE and beyond. These finds include a possible iron shipwreck, a megalithic structure near Tharangambadi, and artifacts from a Dutch ship sunk in the late 18th century.
Experts, including V. Selvakumar of Tamil University and Professor K. Rajan, have welcomed the initiative, stating that the excavations will provide crucial insights into the seafaring heritage of the Tamils and the significance of Poompuhar as a major trading hub. The TNSDA also plans to conduct similar explorations at Korkai, the ancient Pandyan port city. The upcoming excavations promise to significantly advance understanding of Tamil Nadu’s rich maritime past.
First Piper 