{"id":3435,"date":"2022-12-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/28-12-2022\/geoglyphs-ratnagiris-prehistoric-rock-art\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T16:38:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T11:08:38","slug":"geoglyphs-ratnagiris-prehistoric-rock-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-12-2022\/geoglyphs-ratnagiris-prehistoric-rock-art","title":{"rendered":"GEOGLYPHS: Ratnagiri\u2019s Prehistoric Rock Art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>In News<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Experts have raised concerns that the construction of a petrochemical refinery in Barsu village of Maharashtra\u2019s Ratnagiri district might damage around 250 prehistoric geoglyphs found in the area.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>What are Geoglyphs?<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">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.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They can be in the form of rock paintings, etchings, cup marks and ring marks.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>Ratnagiri\u2019s prehistoric rock art<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Clusters of geoglyphs are spread across the Konkan coastline in Maharashtra and Goa, spanning around 900 km.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ratnagiri district has more than 1,500 pieces of such art, also called \u201cKatal shilpa,\u201d spread across 70 sites.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Age: According to carbon dating, these sites are believed to be over 12,000 \u201320,000 years old.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The sites are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>Figures depicted in the geoglyphs<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">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.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>Significance of Ratnagiri\u2019s rock art<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ratnagiri\u2019s rock art is evidence of the continued existence of human settlements from the Mesolithic (middle stone age) to the early historic era.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The geoglyphs also show the existence of certain types of fauna that are no longer present in the region today.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Imagery from these sites shows how people \u201cadapted to ephemeral wetlands in a dry-arid plateau having shallow rock pools, streams and watercourses\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><u>Inclusion in UNESCO\u2019s Tentative List<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In April 2022, these sites in the<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong> Konkan region were added to a tentative list of UNESCO\u2019s world heritage sites.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong> UNESCO listing mentions \u201cKonkan geoglyphs.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> However, elsewhere, the term petroglyph (literally, \u201crock symbol\/character\u201d) is also used.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">UNESCO\u2019s tentative world heritage list mentions seven sites with petroglyphs in Ratnagiri district \u2014 Ukshi, Jambharun, Kasheli, Rundhe Tali, Devihsol, Barsu and Devache Gothane, one in Sindhudurg district \u2013Kudopi village, and nine sites at Phansamal in Goa.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Source: <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #1155cc;\"><u>IE<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Experts have raised concerns that the construction of a petrochemical refinery in Barsu village of Maharashtra\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-3435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/4350375Screenshot_6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}