Tantalising glimpses of prehistoric Goa

GOA: 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 the Ratnagiri district by engineers (and avid hikers) Sudhir Risbood and Manoj Marathe, who have already catalogued hundreds of previously undocumented rock carvings that are remarkably similar to another set found previously in Goa on the riverside laterite shelf of Pansaimol in the Sanguem taluka.The director of the Maharashtra 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 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 central, as we can 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 on the tides.
Thus, many of the Konkan etchings appear to be forms of astronomical calendars and records that catalogue solstices, equinoxes and lunar events. Here, another 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 civilisation 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 technologically-aided research in the 21st century 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 set aside Rs 24 crore to preserve and study the newly identified Konkan petroglyphs. That sum may sound inadequate given the number and broad distribution, but it is superior to Goa’s cavalier and shameful neglect of the crown jewel the 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 them 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 continuing to abdicate responsibility as they have for decades on end.