Chennai, Sep 22 The submerged Chola port city yielded fresh secrets throwing up a “torpedo jar” during an underwater exploration at Poompuhar, an official said on Wednesday.
This major breakthrough for maritime archaeology came during the 18-day underwater exploration at Poompuhar about 260 km from here. This third phase of deep-sea underwater excavations off the Poompuhar coast wrapped up on Tuesday, unearthing critical physical evidence of the submerged Chola port city of Kaveripoompattinam.
Located at the mouth of the Cauvery river, Poompuhar is also known as Kaveripoompattinam and it once served as the maritime hub of early Chola kingdom. Catastrophic floods lashed the coast and swallowed major portions of the city around 4th to 5th century CE.
The expedition carried out by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA) in collaboration with the Indian Maritime University, spanned a two-square-kilometer underwater zone.
The findings offered compelling new insights into ancient Tamil Nadu’s global trade networks and changing coastal landscape. Among the most significant discoveries of the 2026 campaign is a fine-ceramic fragment of a West Asian “torpedo jar,” with an estimated total diameter of 30 cm to 35 cm.
Historically utilised to transport liquid cargo such as wine and olive oil across oceanic trade routes, the vessel directly reinforces literary accounts of Poompuhar’s thriving maritime links with West Asia and the Mediterranean world, an official said.
Divers also discovered four massive terracotta ring wells, measuring 60 cm to 65 cm in diameter, resting on the sea floor.
Since the ring wells were traditionally constructed on dry land to access freshwater, researchers noted that their presence on the seabed strongly points to a buried palaeochannel – an ancient riverbed that was eventually swallowed by the sea due to coastal erosion and rising water levels.
The expedition yielded a massive pottery haul of over 250 ceramic pieces, including rare glazed ware fragments. Unlike earlier isolated underwater surveys conducted in the 1990s, the multi-phase 2025–26 project utilised state-of-the-art marine technology including side-scan sonars, sub-bottom profilers, multibeam scanners, and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to map the ocean floor.
Addressing historical challenges related to underwater visibility, a core priority of this latest phase was building comprehensive photographic and video documentation of the submerged antiquities in situ.
According to officials, the current deep-sea investigation represented roughly 10 percent of the overall planned exploration zone. The TNSDA is presently consolidating its data and artifact findings, and is scheduled to submit a detailed underwater exploration report to the Tamil Nadu government by February 2027.
(PTI News)
