The present paper on the Stratigraphy and Structural context of the Arikamedu site emphasizes that the limit of the site is not restricted to the excavated north and south sectors as stated in the French and English records. The overall extent of the site is just less than one square km. The stratigraphical study at the north and the northeast of the site now clearly attests that port activities also existed beyond the limits of Wheeler’s warehouse. Only a few of the structures and artifacts from the east, though the study recorded many, have been used for illustrations, and describe that there was a settlement and other activities during the early Christian era. In the south, beyond the protected boundary line (generally made 100 meters away from the site), the study has located the previously excavated French trenches, which show the deposits of early settlers of Arikamedu. Further south the study also identified traces of Iron Age habitation.

The perception of Arikamedu as a single period site should be changed in view of the fact that the analysis also identified medieval and French strata and structures. Arikamedu is found to have four occupation periods: an Iron Age period, an early Historical period, a Medieval period and a Modern period. All four periods are characterized by accumulations of deposits and structural remains. The Medieval and the French strata and structures are traced out in the graphic table of the Harris Matrix, applied to Wheeler’s section drawing. To confirm the medieval and French periods in Arikamedu, the study also made an archaeological investigation at other medieval sites near by Arikamedu, which established that some of the installations of Arikamedu are dated to Medieval and French times. 
The records of Wheeler and his system of excavation, though scientific, could not predict the correct strata and dating of phases of the south and north sectors of Arikamedu, which are very c clearly predicted in the present study. His system, no doubt, misled the Indian archaeologists into considering that the strata that they saw between their two lines on the section run over the entire site and many of the medieval deposits and artifacts are deemed to be ancient. Perhaps his system is a modified scientific version of an arbitrary dig.

The paper finally appeals for a new system of archaeological investigation such as a modified Gazer system with the application of the Harris Matrix in order to understand the cultural pattern of Arikamedu through the ages. The strata here were rolled down to level the riverbank and fill the ridges of the bank. The strata were disturbed (shaken) when the palm trees in the site were bulldozed with their roots during the construction of the fence trench. Hence, the new investigation, considering the above factors, will shed new light on the real city pattern of Arikamedu.

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