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K. Paul RAJANPondicherry UniversityPort cities and hinterland trade in Early Historic Tamil Nadu The paper attempts to highlight the central research question concerns the mutually constituted socio-economic relationships between port sites and their hinterlands.  The bulk of analysis will concern the organization and characterization of archaeological findings from the port sites and hinder land trade centers. The aim is to identify distribution networks and centers of production and exchange linking the port sites and its hinterland. The discovery of more than 200 archaeological sites in Amaravathi river valley and subsequent archaeological excavations particularly at Porunthal and Thandikudi provided a substantial evidence to understand the existence of well established trade network connecting port cities and hinter land trade and production centres. Such a breadth of comparison data would give a well rounded representation of sources of production and distribution. It is my hope that this paper will provide useful information on regional exchange networks in Kongu country during the Early Historic period. Such information may help us to have a better understanding on the social landscape of Early Historic South India, as well as the local infrastructure and trade mechanisms that would have been integral in facilitating the creation and maintenance of long-distance trade networks. The analysis of archaeological findings from Kongu country will be set within a landscape-oriented analysis of Early Historic Tamilakam (Kerala and Tamil Nadu). From a regional perspective, the politically constructed Early Historic landscape and the ways in which trade routes, trade goods, and people navigated their way through this politicized landscape would be seen.  The aim of this spatial analysis is to begin thinking about how different institutions may have displayed or marked their authority within the landscape. Another aspect of this landscape-oriented approach will involve a critical analysis of classical Tamil literature. The ArcGIS database containing information on the locations of Early Historic sites, Iron Age Megalithic burials, Jain caves and monuments, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, Roman and Chera coins would give broader perspective on the nature of trade networks. 