Moreover, the residents of Pattanam regularly used to find a large amount of broken pottery shards and ancient fired bricks while digging the ground.

[3] Square copper coins (on one side an elephant and on the other bows and arrows) had been found at the site.

At the same time there is lack of evidence to show that the artifacts unearthed at Pattanam came specifically from Rome.

Findings: Antiquities of small size - beads of both semi-precious stones and glass, pendants or lockets [5] cameo blanks, coins, (predominantly early Chera coins, with symbols of elephant, bow and arrow) objects or fragments of objects made of iron, copper, lead and rarely gold, and sherds of Indian and foreign pottery.

The finds this year include iron and copper nails, Roman glass, Chola coins, terracotta and semi precious stone beads.

[6] Former Director of the Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department R. Nagaswamy is of opinion that it is not yet time to identify Pattanam as Muziris.

"Whether Pattanam was Muziris is not of immediate concern to us," the chief of the Kerala Council for Historical Research recently stated to the media.