The State Department of Archaeology is likely to shift a few centuries old gravestones kept at the Mural Arts Museum in Thrissur to the Renaissance Museum being set up at Bastion Bungalow in Fort Kochi.
“Six gravestones remained without proper care at the State museum in Thrissur. They were shifted to the Mural Arts Museum last year,” said B. Balamohanan, documentation officer with the Thrissur unit of the Department of Archaeology.
The inscriptions on the gravestones have not been completely deciphered. One of them is believed to have a Sri Lankan connection. “The gravestones will be restored and have protective frames. The stones will not be exposed to rain,” said Mr. Balamohanan.
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The gravestones date back to the 16th and 17th centuries and are believed to been brought from Kodungallur, once occupied by the Portuguese.
According to records, they were brought to the State Museum by Paliyat Anujanachan, an archaeologist, in the early 1940s. They are soon likely to be a part of the Fort Kochi museum, which will focus on Kerala during the renaissance period: from 1800 to the mid 1980s.