Arikamedu excavations after Wheeler's 1947 campaign

Record summary

Mortimer Wheeler's 1947 excavations at Arikamedu, followed by later investigations, made the site a central reference for Indo-Roman trade on the Coromandel coast. Imported Mediterranean ceramics, local pottery, bead production and structural remains have been used to reconstruct maritime exchange and the site's relation to the port named Poduke in classical sources. Later scholars have challenged simple models of a Roman trading station, emphasizing longer local sequences and uneven evidence. The lead is therefore useful for comparing text, artifact distribution and coastal geomorphology, while chronology and site function remain subjects of revision.