GEOGLYPHS: Ratnagiri’s Prehistoric Rock Art

In News

• Experts have raised concerns that the construction of a petrochemical refinery in Barsu village of Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district might damage around 250 prehistoric geoglyphs found in the area.

What are Geoglyphs?

• Geoglyphs are a form of prehistoric rock art, created on the surface of laterite plateaus by removing a part of the rock surface through an incision, picking,carving or abrading. 
• They can be in the form of rock paintings, etchings, cup marks and ring marks.

Ratnagiri’s prehistoric rock art

• Clusters of geoglyphs are spread across the Konkan coastline in Maharashtra and Goa, spanning around 900 km. 
• Ratnagiri district has more than 1,500 pieces of such art, also called “Katal shilpa,” spread across 70 sites. 
• Age: According to carbon dating, these sites are believed to be over 12,000 –20,000 years old.
• The sites are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Figures depicted in the geoglyphs

• The figures depicted in the geoglyphs include humans and animals such as deer, elephant, tiger, monkey, wild boar, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, cattle, pig, rabbit, and monkey. 
• They also include a high number of reptilian and amphibian creatures such as tortoises and alligators, aquatic animals such as sharks and stingrays, and birds like peacocks.

Significance of Ratnagiri’s rock art

• Ratnagiri’s rock art is evidence of the continued existence of human settlements from the Mesolithic (middle stone age) to the early historic era. 
• The geoglyphs also show the existence of certain types of fauna that are no longer present in the region today.
• Imagery from these sites shows how people “adapted to ephemeral wetlands in a dry-arid plateau having shallow rock pools, streams and watercourses”.

Inclusion in UNESCO’s Tentative List

• In April 2022, these sites in the Konkan region were added to a tentative list of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.
• The UNESCO listing mentions “Konkan geoglyphs.” However, elsewhere, the term petroglyph (literally, “rock symbol/character”) is also used. 
• UNESCO’s tentative world heritage list mentions seven sites with petroglyphs in Ratnagiri district — Ukshi, Jambharun, Kasheli, Rundhe Tali, Devihsol, Barsu and Devache Gothane, one in Sindhudurg district –Kudopi village, and nine sites at Phansamal in Goa.

Source: IE