Experts visit excavation site at Edayaranmula

Inspect terracotta pieces, including male and female figurines

Heritage: Noted curator M. L. Johny, inspecting a terracotta figurine unearthed from the Pampa river banks at Edayaranmula during his visit to the temporary museum set up by the Archaeology Department at Aranmula on Friday.

Noted curator M. L. Johny, accompanied by Antony Kaaral from the Government Fine Arts College in Thiruvananthapuram, visited the excavation site of the Archaeology Department on the banks of river Pampa at Edayaranmula on Friday.

They also visited the temporary museum set up by the Kerala State Archaeology Department at Aranmula where the terracotta figurines unearthed from Edyaranmula have been kept.

Excavation

The Archaeology Department had launched excavation on the banks of river Pampa at Edayaranmula near Aranmula in December last, exploring traces of a vibrant ancient Pampa Valley civilization in the area following the sighting of a few terracotta artefacts there, earlier, in September.

Rajeev Puliyoor, Malayalam teacher at the Mahatma Gandhi University B.Ed Centre at Elanthoor who has been doing research on the ‘Pampa Valley Civilization,’ and K.P. Sreeranganathan, photographer turned historian, also accompanied the two artistes.

The unearthed terracotta pieces include male and female figurines, snake heads, bust of a man and a twin female terracotta statue.

Mr. Puliyoor said renowned historians M.R.Raghava Warrier and M.G.S.Narayanan, were of the view that the terracotta artefacts unearthed from the banks of river Pampa appeared to be centuries old. Prof Warrier had visited the site twice, earlier, he said.

Mr Puliyoor stressed the need for an exhaustive study and excavation in the Pampa river basin in the wake of the unearthing of ancient terracotta artefacts from the river banks.