The cannonballs were found two weeks ago while digging a pit for the light and sound show at the Fort.
Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar watching the pile of cannon balls excavated from the premises of St Angelo's Fort on Friday. Kannur MP P K Sreemathi, MLA A P Abdulla Kutty, District Collector P Bala Kiran among others look on (Photo: DC)
Kannur: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will soon start cleaning the cannonballs unearthed from St Angelo’s Fort in Kannur. After cleaning, the balls will be treated with chemicals to preserve them and for further studies.
The cannonballs were found two weeks ago while digging a pit for the light and sound show at the Fort.
During the one-week long excavation, the ASI found 37, 950 cannon balls from this 500-year old fort built by the Portuguese. However largescale excavation will not happen, according to ASI sources.
Speaking to DC, ASI archaeologist C Kumaran said that the ASI authorities would discuss how to deal with the cannonballs and also would start cleaning them and treating them to preserve them.
“The cannonballs are from the colonial era and we need to know whether it is British or Dutch or Portuguese who owned those cannonballs,” he said.
He added that the cannonballs were dumped by the colonial power and not stored for use. “The cannonballs are dumped without proper categorization in different sizes. If it was for storage purposes for use during the war, they would have definitely categorized them accordingly. I think they must be abandoned cannonballs,” he added.
The Fort has become the main attraction of archaeologists and history students after the pile of cannonballs were uncovered.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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