Guwahati, March 25 :    Guwahati, March 25:  The unread pages of history hold many strange tales and this could be one of them. An Assamese researcher studying Greek and Roman texts has come across references suggesting that cannibalism may have been prevalent in Assam. P.C. Sarma, director of Research Council, Vivekananda Institute of Culture, quoted from the 150 AD compilation, Ptolemy's Geography, to say that prevalence of cannibalism in Assam could not be discounted altogether. Sarma's observation has been documented in a paper titled 'Prospects in Graeco-Roman sources for the reconstruction of Assam history' which was presented at a seminar on 'Sources of history of Northeast India' held here recently. The period of Sarma's study is the 'first-second centuries of the Christian era'. Ptolemy wrote: 'Beyond Kirrhadia, the Zamirai, a race of cannibals, is located near Mount Maiandros.' The researcher said: 'Mount Maiandros may indicate the lofty Mairang hills, about 5 km away from Khanapara on the Guwahati-Shillong Road.' According to the researcher, the Mairang hills are said to be inhabited by the earliest known rulers of the region, King Mairang or Mahiranga. 'Though we do not have evidence to prove the existence of cannibalism, we cannot reject its prevalence either,' Sarma said. Though there are references to headhunting in several parts of the Northeast, the Greek texts are the first to hint at the prevalence of cannibalism in Assam. Ptolemy's Geography was compiled by the legend on the basis of word-of-mouth from traders and seafarers and the locations of each place was calculated with the help of latitudes and longitudes. Sarma, however, also quoted the noted historian Gerini as saying that 'many towns and marts which had existed and even flourished during that period, and were recorded by our eminent geographer, have now disappeared from the face of the earth as well as from the memory of man. While others have changed their names several times, each change being often into a different language, according to the race under whose sway they successively fell, are now unrecognisable under their modern appellations'. Though Sarma's observations are based on Gerini's interpretation of Ptolemy's Geography, the Assamese researcher said Ptolemy pointedly described Assam which can serve as materials to reconstruct at least the geographical background of this state of the first-second centuries'. Besides Ptolemy's Geography, Sarma also cited references from another Greek treatise The Periplus of the Erythrian Sea, which was written by an anonymous Greek trader between 80 AD and 89 AD. Sarma cited the Ambari excavations in the heart of Guwahati in the 1970s, which unearthed a few pieces of Roman as well as Chinese pottery and point towards 'the existence of a Roman trade route to east and southeast Asia along the Brahmaputra Valley'. Sarma mentioned that though the accounts of the traders - whose words formed the basis of Ptolemy's work - were mainly concerned with trading, they also threw light on the people and geography of the region. 'As geography can serve as the eye of history, researches on the Roman sources as well as wider archaeological exploration and excavation may help in the compilation of the history of the early Christian centuries of Assam,' Sarma added.