“We have found coins, tobacco clay pipes, stoneware, earthenware, glass, roof tiles, corded pottery, skeletal remains of humans and animals, bangles, stones, shards of Chinese porcelain dating back to Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644),” says artist and history enthusiast Raigon Stanley.
He along with Thaha Ibrahim, who is involved with Kochi’s Jewish history, and Siddique Tajee, owner of an antiques store in Jew Street found various items in the debris dug up after the Cochin Smart Mission Pvt. Limited (CSML) began infra-enhancement work in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry.
The trio is passionate about Kochi’s heritage and has been sifting through the refuse for relics of the past. What they have found throws light on history of the area that was successively inhabited by the Portuguese in the 15th century, followed by the Dutch and the British, and had Jewish settlements dating back to the 12th Century.
Mocked, but not for long
In the first phase of work, in March 2020, in areas around the Fort Kochi beach they salvaged relics of broken columns, pillars and stone slabs of the same vintage and stored them at the Bastion Bungalow Museum situated in the locality. More recently, the digging in Jew Street and Fort Kochi has thrown up a large cache, which is on display at Raigon’s gallery ‘The Grey Book Museum and Archives’, on Rose Street in Fort Kochi.
In September 2018, Thaha found a roof tile unlike any other he had seen near the Chembittapalli mosque. Soon he had found many similar ones. Raigon, who has a collection of photographs, quickly identified them as ones used in earlier times.
“When people saw us ferreting through the debris, they mocked us, even calling us mad. But the roof tiles, similar to those that Thaha had found in 2018, made them curious,” laughs Raigon, adding that, once the CSML workers got interested in their work, “the site supervisor and the workers became very helpful. We would not have been able to acquire this collection, if not for them.”
- Ming Dynasty porcelain
- Porcelain was unknown in Europe until the 1500s and when the material arrived, it created a sensation. In the 16th century porcelain became the occult item amongst the very wealthy and by the 18th century its popularity spread to the middle class.
- Porcelain replaced precious metals like gold and silver in that period. The making of porcelain was shrouded in mystery during that time and only the Chinese knew it. This exotic product, in limited supply, was accessed only by the Portuguese and the Dutch. Some of the porcelain shards excavated from Fort Kochi and Mattancherry date back to the Ming dynasty.
- Now the Chinese are buying back their history depicted in Chinese porcelain, making it one of the most expensive arts ever to come under auction. In 2014, a tiny porcelain cup, dating back to the Ming Dynasty, fetched US$36 million (£21.5 million) at an auction in Hong Kong.
From September, the three began to collect artefacts and ecofacts, systematically cleaned, documented, labelled and stored them so that history enthusiasts could explore further. “Our daily routine was to collect such pieces, carefully clean and sort them in the evenings. As each piece is fragile, it had to be done individually,” explains Raigon who invested in precision archaeological tools for this delicate excavation project.
His interest in archaeology helped him identify objects of historical importance. “The long stem clay pipes, for instance, were easy to identify as I had seen similar ones in a museum in Germany,” he says, adding that marks on them and on porcelain bits make it simpler to date them.
According to him, these 18-inch-long stem tobacco pipes were used in Cochin in the years 1680-1710. The Rouletted Ware, found among the other artefacts from Fort Kochi and Jew town, are similar to the Pattanam excavations conducted by Kerala Council of Historical Research (KCHR), before the pandemic. “The findings belong to different cultures and periods, some are Roman, Chinese, Persian others African ... probably belonging to shipwrecks close to the coast, once part of Indian ocean trade,” he says.
Raigon and his team went into the ditches and saw the different layers of debris. “There are foundation stones at the bottom, followed by pottery, and stacks of roof tile,” he points out adding that they found a huge number of ceramic pieces in the digs in front of the St Francis Church.
After the ASI did not show any interest in their discoveries, Raigon contacted colleges to help them. The Zoology Department of Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam agreed to undertake carbon dating of the objects, he says.
K. Harikumar, Technical Assistant, Department of Archaeology, Kerala State, says that roof tiles similar to what the trio found were used in the 13th and 14th centuries and have been thrown up in digs in several areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “The Kollam Port renovation in 2014-15 had uncovered coins and this led to an interest in archaeology among the citizens of Kerala. Now youngsters are interested and involved, which is a significant change and will help in preserving our heritage,” he says.
Thaha, who has lived for 37 years on Jew Street as assistant to the Cohen family and later managed Sara Cohen’s embroidery and souvenir business, visited Tel Aviv in March 2020 for a screening of a documentary on the iconic Jewess. He says he was amazed to see objects similar to those unearthed here. “There was trade before the Jews came here and they had the same trading partners there,” he says.
Animal kingdom past
At The Grey Book Museum, Raigon carefully preserves animal bones in one bottle and human remains in another. “First we thought there were mass graves, but we found animal bones and porcelain shards along with human remains. They could be of horses,” he says, adding that DNA testing will be done.
The most exciting items from the excavation are the clay pipes. Placed together, the pieces form a long half-foot-pipe, images of which can be seen in paintings and lithographs in Raigon’s collection. “The African slaves would smoke these pipes, but there are images of the ‘elite’ using them too,” he says.
His plan is to create and launch a line of commercial products under brand 'C o c h i m', inspired by these artefacts, like a chiffon stole in his possession that could have the “corded pottery pattern and images from the porcelains on it.'” “There is no physical evidence of Kochi’s past in the way this data presents it. We would like to use these to take the history of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry forward,” he says.