Archaeological report
HISTORICAL SOURCES & VISUAL NOTES
Sources, credits and visual honesty.
EOI uses history as a source of perspective—not as decoration presented without context.
HOW TO READ THE HOMEPAGE
Evidence and imagination are labelled separately.
Archaeology rarely preserves a complete working scene. The “Then” images are therefore artistic reconstructions informed by evidence about ports, goods, production, movement and exchange across different periods and regions.
They are not claimed as photographs, exact records of one port, or proof that every modern process existed in an identical form.
Archaeological publication
Vimala Begley et al., The Ancient Port of Arikamedu
New Excavations and Researches, 1989–1992, École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1996/2004. Used for the longer occupational and manufacturing context.Open original source ↗Ancient text
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
A first-century CE mariner’s account. Used cautiously for named ports, commodities and maritime connections; it predates the c. 320–550 CE visual frame.Open original source ↗Research book
Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia
Cambridge University Press, 2003. Used for maritime networks, ports and archaeological interpretation.Museum research
The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Gandhara
Used for the expansion of ocean routes using monsoon winds and their connection to overland networks.Open original source ↗International programme
UNESCO Silk Roads Programme
Used for the description of land and maritime routes as networks carrying goods, skills, ideas and cultural exchange.Open original source ↗Modern official source
Government of India, Department of Commerce
Annual reports and Trade Analytics portal used for present-day trade context. Live figures are not embedded in the storytelling visuals.Open original source ↗Visual-use notice
EOI historical scene policy
All split-era historical scenes are clearly labelled artistic reconstructions informed by published evidence. They are not photographs of the past, archaeological records or claims that every depicted practice is documented for one exact port and year.A note on “Golden Age” language
The c. 320–550 CE frame is used as a recognisable visual period, not as a claim that one empire governed every Indian port or that Indian Ocean trade began in that period. Several key sources and archaeological sites belong to earlier or later centuries. The website therefore says “historically informed reconstruction” and credits the evidence separately.