https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIGO%2F2018%2F10%2F08&entity=Ar00423&sk=C0D93A5F&mode=text
Hugely interesting news emerged last week when the BBC reported “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.” The story from the broadcaster’s Marathi service described major findings in Ratnagiri district by engineers (and avid hikers) Sudhir Risbood and Manoj Marathe, who have already painstakingly catalogued hundreds of previously undocumented rock carvings that are remarkably similar to another set found much previously in Goa, on the riverside laterite shelf of Pansaimol in Sanguem taluka. The director of the Maharashtra state archaeology department estimates these “were created around 10,000 BC.” That dating is consistent with the dominant themes represented in the petroglyphs of both Goa and Maharashtra, which are the preoccupations of hunter-gatherer social groups that define what we know of the Mesolithic period (often referred to as the Stone Age). The last Ice Age was coming to an end, and early humans were restlessly on the loose in the newly warmer world. From other Mesolithic sites in India, we know our ancestors were experimenting with agriculture and starting to build structures for shelter, storage and worship. But hunting and fishing were still centrally important, as we can readily see from the Konkan petroglyphs: huge bulls, herds of deer, sharks and whales, wild boar, and at least one rhinoceros. Also apparent throughout is ancient humankind’s preoccupations with the night sky. Hunters needed to know the phases of the moon, which determine the availability of light at night, and fishermen have always depended wholly on the tides. Thus, many of the Konkan etchings appear to be forms of astronomical calendars and records which catalogue solstices, equinoxes and lunar events. Here, another spectacular finding announced earlier this year is relevant. An Indo-German team of astrophysicists led by Mahank Vahia conclusively found that ancient images discovered in Burzahama in Kashmir are “the oldest depiction of a supernova, the final explosion of a dying star, ever discovered.” Vahia says “They had drawn the entire sky.” As far as we go back in history, there are accounts of Goa. The late scholar Anant Ramkrishna Dhume somewhat controversially made a case for considerable “Sumerian influence” in this territory, which would align to literally the first civilization known to mankind. But even leaving that aside, there are mountains of evidence bolstering our understanding that this tiny sliver of the western coastline of India has been continuously inhabited throughout recorded time. But what we are learning from diligent technologically-aided research in the 21stcentury is that the story goes much further back. A host of sites in and around Goa have yielded the insight that early humankind flourished here as well. Now we are on the verge of learning much more about that period and those people. According to the BBC, the Maharashtra government has quickly set aside 24 crore rupees to preserve and study the newly identified Konkan petroglyphs. That sum may sound inadequate given the number and broad distribution, but it is infinitely superior to Goa’s extraordinarily cavalier and shameful neglect of the crown jewel Mesolithic site of the Konkan at Pansaimol, where the magnificent carvings have been entirely abandoned to the elements for many years, and remain extremely vulnerable to unsupervised groups that regularly walk all over the carvings, while leaving trash piled up all around. At the same time, various new sites have been found with great potential, such as at Cabo de Rama, but the state authorities have demonstrated no interest whatsoever, and are conspicuously continuing to abdicate responsibility as they have for decades on end.