Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Gauri03, Jul 23, 2014.

  1. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Now that we have triggered so much interest in the puzzle, any takers for posting the next puzzle after @Gauri03 posts her answer? If not, I will work on something this week to post my next puzzle. :)
     
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  2. Gauri03

    Gauri03 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Answer to Puzzle #8783

    puzzle2.png

    MUZIRIS or Muciri or Muciripattanam

    "An ancient harbour and an urban centre on the Malabar Coast. Muziris found mention in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, the bardic Tamil poems and a number of classical sources.

    Muziris was a key to the interactions between South India and Persia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the (Greek and Roman) Mediterranean region. Pliny the elder, in his Natural History, hailed Muziris as "the first emporium of India". The important known commodities exported from Muziris were spices (such as black pepper ...), semi-precious stones, pearls, diamonds... The Roman navigators brought gold coins, peridots, ..., wine, realgar and orpiment." ~Wikipedia


    Image clues numbered from left to right, top to bottom,

    #1 E.V. Ramasami, also known as Periyar. Reference to the Periyar river which not only gave Muziris its name but also destroyed it in a catastrophic flooding event, around 1341 CE.

    #2 Blue domed buildings on the island of Santorini in Greece. This was a tougher clue. I assumed most folks would be able to identify the location of these iconic blue domes by sight. Greece was one of the major trading partners of ancient Muziris.

    #3 Peppers. Black pepper or black gold was one of the prized commodities exported from Muziris. Black Pepper pretty much single-handedly led to the colonization of India. : ) (It's a simplification, I know) As @deepthyanoop noted, it is ironic we Indians don't use it as much as the rest of the world does!

    #4 Vatican City in Rome. Again a location clue pointing to the Romans who traded with Muziris.

    #5 Gold bottle of Wine. Gold and Wine were both items imported by the Chera rulers of Muziris.

    #6 Container ship at a Port/Harbor. I figured since I made the Periyar clue so obvious, I would make this one a little obscure. : ) Port/Harbor/Trade were the keywords I hoped you would take from the image. Periyar+Port would have solved the puzzle in a single search!

    Other clues mentioned, ancient, civilization, port authority of India.

    Everyone who attempted the puzzle managed to find the correct answer. Thank you for solving ladies and gents! It is extremely gratifying for the puzzle-maker to see people work out their convoluted logic and solve a puzzle they've made. : ) So a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who tried!!
     
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  3. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    @Gauri03, I have made the Indian port connection only after you gave the last clue with all the ports in India. I was searching for something in Europe until then. Even after I began my search in India, I circled a lot around Barbaricum in Pakistan (ancient India) thinking Periyar called Tamils as Barbarians and I took Cum from Capsicum adding up to Barbaricum. I thought you won't give an easy reference to Periyar River. Finally I landed in the right answer before I communicated it with you. @jskls spoiler confirmed it for me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2022
  4. deepthyanoop

    deepthyanoop Gold IL'ite

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    Gauri,
    You said in the beginning either the puzzle is too easy or too difficult. It was indeed. If you found right keywords, it is super easy. And if you didn’t you may reach at Babylonian math tablet like me :tearsofjoy::tearsofjoy:
    Erode was the keyword that I guessed for Periyar’s stamp. Then Ramanujan, Greek led me to Pythagorean theory and eventually Babylonian math tablet :roflmao:
    My problem was wine and capsicum not fitting in this o_O
    Then you confirmed it was a place and clues being superficial. Then I changed the keywords to Periyar, Greek, Roman, peppers, wine and port, voila, got it :cheer:
    It was so much fun and I really really appreciate your time, efforts, and thoughts to make these awesome puzzles in detail. Thank you !
     
  5. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    my search clues were Periyar, Ship and pepper. voila an article in Indian express mentioned about this - Make History Fun Again: Muziris, the fabulous ancient Indian port, and Ports of India map was a give away. Thanks for another wonderful Puzzle Gauri
     
  6. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    I have seen the ship loaded with cargo in Livorno, the port near Florence similar to that and instead of taking it as a simple port clue, I started focusing in and around Italy. :facepalm:
     
  7. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    The tourism department of kerala sponsored an article in the Economic Times . It dealt with history of this place in detail.
     
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  8. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    I zoomed the korean container ship image and found it got aground near indonesia sea as i did with puzzle in the middle!
     
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  9. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    since I had read about the sea route trade in different texts / stories could put it together.
     
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  10. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    though my mind wandered on cargo ship that got stuck in suez canal didn’t go that route
     
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