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From: alt.fan.jai-maharaj@googlegroups.com

Prehistoric art hints at lost Indian civilisation

BBC News, bbc.com
Monday, October 1, 2018

[Images]

The discovery of rock carvings believed to be tens of
thousands of years old in India's western state of
Maharashtra has greatly excited archaeologists who believe
they hold clues to a previously unknown civilisation, BBC
Marathi's Mayuresh Konnur reports.

The rock carvings -- known as petroglyphs -- have been
discovered in their thousands atop hillocks in the Konkan
region of western Maharashtra.

Mostly discovered in the Ratnagiri and Rajapur areas, a
majority of the images etched on the rocky, flat hilltops
remained unnoticed for thousands of years.

Most of them were hidden beneath layers of soil and mud.
But a few were in the open -- these were considered holy and
worshipped by locals in some areas.

The sheer variety of the rock carvings have stunned experts
-- animals, birds, human figures and geometrical designs are
all depicted.

The way the petroglyphs have been drawn, and their
similarity to those found in other parts of the world, have
led experts to believe that they were created in
prehistoric times and are possibly among the oldest ever
discovered.

"Our first deduction from examining these petroglyphs is
that they were created around 10,000BC," the director of
the Maharashtra state archaeology department, Tejas Garge,
told the BBC.

The credit for their discovery goes to a group of explorers
led by Sudhir Risbood and Manoj Marathe, who began
searching for the images in earnest after observing a few
in the area. Many were found in village temples and played
a part in local folklore.

Continues at:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45559300

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