Where Did the Tamil Bell Come From?

Out-of-place artifacts, as the name suggests, is a genre of historical puzzles that deals with objects that have been discovered in unnatural locations. The Tamil Bell is one of the most well-known examples of how this puts pressure on academics and scientists to attempt and explain how they got there.

The mysterious object was later examined, and it was discovered to be a bronze ship's bell with Tamil writing on it. Furthermore, it was written in an antiquated script that had not been in use for many years rather than the contemporary Tamil script.

The bell's Tamil ship of origin is very evident, but does this pose more problems than it answers? This occurred at least a century before the mid-17th century, when Europeans first established contact with New Zealanders. Does this imply that South Asian cultures, including the Tamils, knew about New Zealand far earlier than this? Did they communicate with one another, or did the bell just wash ashore when a Tamil ship sank?