Doubts arise over age of temple found in sea off Chennai coast
Posted On: Apr 25th, 2016 at 18:00
India
A temple has been discovered off the coast of Chennai in India, and is thought to be around 2,000 years old.
Divers have found a ten-metre wall, stairs and carved stone blocks in 27 feet of water, and the ruins are more than 800 metres from the current shoreline.
As for the rest of the story, mainly that the area was swallowed up by a tsunami in 952 AD, I have doubts about the validity. Having been to that area there is nothing but ocean. Any tsunami waters would have receded. The article also states that the area was left under water when sea levels rose, and that the carvings are not normal for the time period given. Basically the facts given seem to be nothing but guesswork, and perhaps this site could be much older than the 2,000 years suggested by said guesswork. It’s certainly one of those cases where pre-conceived notions of time scales override the evidence at the site, and it also appears they are trying to fit the buildings into the chronology of others found in the same area. At least that’s the way it appears to me. The clue, for me, is the unusual stone carvings that are not consistent with other temples from a “later” period.
