Hyderabad: Researchers from Telugu University and a group of heritage enthusiasts and trekkers have discovered rock paintings belonging to middle stone age (Mesolithic) period — about 4000 BCE to 12000 BCE — in city outskirts. The painting, depicting tortoise and fish, form the art gallery of pre-historic humans settled in the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The paintings are located at the top of a hillock at Manchirevula forest trek park near the outer ring road. This is the third pre-historic art gallery to be discovered in Hyderabad. The other pre-historic sites in the city are at Kokapet (extinct due to urbanisation) and Gundla Pochampally.
“This site has paintings of three tortoises, one fish and a geometric motif in red colour, belonging to the Mesolithic phase. The Mesolithic phase spans roughly between 10000 BCE to 4,000 BCE. It means the age of these paintings might be anywhere between 12,000 to 6,000 years,” said Dr MA Srinivasan, assistant professor of history, culture and tourism, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad.
He said the rock shelter on which these paintings were found would have been a suitable dwelling space for Mesolithic humans as the boulder is shaped as a snake hood. “Two young trekkers, Mir Omar Ali Khan and Rishabh Manda of IBS, found some paintings on a rock at the top of a hillock at Manchirevula Forest Trek Park,” Dr Srinivasan said, adding that he then led a team of students from Telugu University to study the rock art.
“There are some more paintings on which these visible paintings seem to be superimposed. Some lines are faded too. As we could find some broken pieces of quartzite used in making microliths and a few pieces of microliths, it is a clear Mesolithic site,” Dr Srinivasan said.
According to him, Mesolithic paintings of tortoises were found in the past at Sanganonipally in Narayanpet district and Vattimalla in Rajanna Sircilla. Altogether, Telangana has more than 75 rock art sites belonging to Mesolithic to Megalithic period.
“This site is a proud pre-historic heritage of Telangana in general and Hyderabad in particular. As the site falls in the Manchirevula Forest Trek Park, government departments, like the department of Heritage, should take steps to preserve it”, said Public Research Institute of History, Archaeology and Heritage vice-president Dr D Surya Kumar.
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