Happy Archaeology Month!

In addition to being Frozen Food Month, March is also Archaeology Month.

According to the newsletter put out by Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society:

The tsunami that devasted the Far East on December 26 has exposed an ancient city and parts of a temple in Mahabalipuram, India. Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations there.

Three rock structures with elaborate carvings of animals have emerged. As the water receded, the force of the water removed sand deposits that had covered the structures. These structures appear to belong to a port city built in the seventh century.

The six-foot rocky structures include the elaborately carved head of an elephant and a horse in flight. Another structure has a reclining lion sculpted on it. Archaeologists believe these could be part of the legendary seven pagodas.

Further excavations may expose more edifices to be found.

CGCAS credits the St. Pete Times, 2/29/05, but that can't be right.

The Times of India has a cute little article, though:

. . the archaeologists are an excited lot . .

I bet they are. I could not find anything on the 'legendary seven pagodas" except more articles on their discovery. Seems like somewhere on the web there'd be, you know, a legend or something.

Anyway - Celebrate March! Take an archaeologist a frozen pizza!

Update: O Ho! India's No. 1 Weekly News Magazine printed an article June 2003 on the legendary seven temples. Scroll down to myth #4 - the sunken Temples of Mamallpuram.

"The story of the sunken pagodas of Mamallpuram - or Mahabalipuram - is like a ghost story. No one has seen a ghost, but everyone would claim to know someone who has seen it."