 Sir Mortimer Wheeler 1945 , and Jean @-@ Marie <unk> conducted <unk> excavations there in 1947 – 1950 . The site was identified as the port of <unk> , known as an " <unk> " in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and Ptolemy . <unk> have found <unk> , <unk> ware , Roman lamps , <unk> , glass and stone beads , and gems at the site . Based on these excavations , Wheeler concluded that the Arikamedu was a Greek ( <unk> ) trading post that traded with Rome , starting during the reign of Augustus Caesar , and lasted about two hundred years — from the late first century BCE to the first and second centuries CE . Subsequent investigation by <unk> Begley from 1989 to 1992 modified this assessment , and now place the period of occupation from the 2nd century BCE to the 8th century CE . 
