The Dec. 26 tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the Indian
Ocean region yielded some unexpected benefits for archaeologists in the region.
The waves’ receding force, which scoured away sediment, uncovered relics
of what is believed to be an ancient port city and portions of a temple, including
an eroded monument of a lion’s head and carvings of elephants and soldiers.
The newly revealed structures lie near the city of Mahabalipuram’s “Shore
Temple,” part of a U.N. World Heritage site in the state of Tamil Nadu
in India. The groups of monuments include sanctuaries carved out of rock in
the 7th and 8th centuries by the Pallava kings, which continue to be a destination
for religious pilgrims today. UNESCO reported that the structures were relatively
undamaged by the tsunami’s inundating waves.
Popular wisdom says that the temple’s monuments are one of several groups
in a chain that has been submerged by rising sea levels. Accounts from witnesses
of the tsunami, who say they saw other structures (possibly submerged pagodas)
that were momentarily exposed as the tsunami pulled water away from the shore,
seemingly have revived the idea of this “Indian Atlantis.” An underwater
survey in 2002 by India’s National Institute of Oceanography documented
what appear to be ruins of structures several hundred meters offshore of the
temple site.
Members of the Archaeological Survey of India have begun restoring the damaged
portions of Shore Temple. And, according to the Associated Press, archaeologists,
with help from divers in India’s navy, began investigating the newly uncovered
ruins both on land and underwater in February.
Naomi Lubick
Link:
"Sumatra quake stronger than thought,"
Geotimes, April 2005
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