Mantai – Anuradhapura's Submerged Port, Mahatittha
Mahatittha · Mantai harbour · Mantota
Iron Age to Portuguese (c. 800 BCE – 1500 CE)·Anuradhapuran / Indo-Roman / Islamic·🇱🇰 Northern Province, Mannar, Sri Lanka
About
About Mantai – Anuradhapura's Submerged Port, Mahatittha
Mantai, port of Anuradhapura 70 km away, sprawls 1 km inland under dunes at –0.5 m former lagoon harbour with 9th c. BCE bead layers and submerged stone jetty 100 m offshore at –1 m. Carswell–Deraniyagala (1980–2014) mapped jetty ashlar with Rouletted ware, and northern harbour basin silted under mangrove with Persian Gulf turquoise-glazed sherds at 1 m. Mantai's 10 m-thick cultural mound seals 1800-year harbour silt; Portuguese causeway reuses harbour ashlar. Bay silting after 13th c. Jaffna shift stranded harbour 1 km from sea. Harbour is type-site for Sri Lankan–Rome bead and glass trade.
Why it mattersOnly Anuradhapura port with intact jetty and bead horizon; mound anchors 1800-year Sri Lankan sea trade.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether Mantai jetty served deep-water or lighter harbour
Theories
- 0113th c. Jaffna kingdom dam diverted Malwathu Oya and killed harbour
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 800 BCE (harbour village); jetty 2nd c. BCE
- Period
- Iron Age to Portuguese (c. 800 BCE – 1500 CE)
- Culture
- Anuradhapuran / Indo-Roman / Islamic
- Purpose
- Anuradhapura's international harbour – beads, pearls, Persian glazed ware
- Abandoned
- 1500 CE (lagoon silt and Portuguese Colombo shift)
- Rediscovered
- 1886 Nevill; 1980 Carswell jetty diving
- Excavation
- Submerged
c. 800 BCE
Mantai harbour village founded
1300 CE
Lagoon silts; harbour 1 km from sea
1980
Carswell maps jetty at –1 m
On the ground
Structures & features
8.9500° N · 79.9500° E · 0 m · 3 mapped features
- Stone Jetty Offshoreharbour100 m stone jetty at –1 m – Rouletted ware jetty at Mantai – Anuradhapura's Submerged Port, Mahatittha8.9520° N · 79.9530° E
- Silted Lagoon Basinharbour400×250 m silted lagoon basin under mangrove at Mantai – Anuradhapura's Submerged Port, Mahatittha8.9480° N · 79.9480° E
- Cultural Moundstructure10 m cultural mound – bead and turquoise-glazed sherds at Mantai – Anuradhapura's Submerged Port, Mahatittha8.9510° N · 79.9500° E