INTACH
TheHeritageClubNewsletter
JULY-SEPTEMBER 2007
Rock Art
Art of the Stone Age
It was in 1856 that the first Rock Art sites were found in India near Almora. Soon after
this discovery, Archibald Carlleyle, who worked in the Archaeological Office of the
British India government at that time, came upon some remarkable sites of Rock Art in
the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. These discoveries sparked off a lot of excitement
among historians and archaeologists as it proved that people had lived in this part of the
world even before the Harappan civilization. Some experts believe there could be 5,000
to 6,000 Rock Art sites in India.
Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh was declared a World Heritage
Site by UNESCO in 2004 for its Stone Age remains that date
back to 10,000 BC. Some of the paintings show several layers
made in different times of human evolution.
These extraordinary examples of our heritage are carved
and painted onto natural stone and rock that cannot be
moved and protecting them is a continuous process. We
must try to save them as nothing else remains from that
very ancient time in our history. A complete study of all the
known prehistoric sites could very well tell us the story
of the first human beings who moved to the Indian
subcontinent, where they came from, how they
lived and survived, and how they progressed to
larger and more stable settlements.
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
Heritage Club members’ entries
2, 3
Evolution of Human Beings and their Art 4
Rock Art Sites in India
5
Bhimbetka
6, 7
Finding Ancient Treasures
8
Activities
9, 10
Heritage Alert
11
What’s Next, Prize Winners
12
VOL 4 No. 3
From Us to U
Hello Heritage Club Members,
Welcome back from your summer
break. We hope you had a lot of fun
during your vacations. This issue
of Young Intach is on a fascinating
theme most of us know very little
about – the drawings and art made
by early man. Popularly called Rock
Art all over the world, these drawings
and paintings are the only surviving
clues to what life might have been like
30,000 – 40,000 years ago.
In India, one of the oldest known
Rock Art sites has been found at
Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh.
Visiting and studying sites like these
is like going on a treasure hunt with a
handful of clues to find the treasure.
Answers to questions like: who were
our ancestors? how did they live?
what did they do?
You want the answers? Read on, and
find out more!
DID YOU KNOW?
~ India has one of the three largest
concentration of Rock Art sites, along
with Australia and Africa.
~ Over one million different motifs
and shapes have been discovered in
Indian Rock Art.
~ Animal motifs are the most
commonly drawn figures in Indian
Rock Art, then human forms followed
by other symbols and designs.
LIFE - 40,000 years ago
Imaginative essays by Heritage Club members
If I lived in the Stone Age, one day in my life would have been like ….
We woke up in the cave and went to the river and spent some time there.
Then we went to the jungle for hunting. For this we took our weapons. In the jungle
we hunted a few animals and ate their raw flesh and saved some to eat later. We
also tasted some fruits. After coming back we did various activities like playing in
the river etc. The whole day passed like this. At night, we took dinner. Soon, we felt
cold as it was winter. So, to protect ourselves we went into our rock shelter in our
caves. We did some cave paintings also. Now we are very tired so, slept soon. That
day was very interesting.
Sent by Prakhar Sharma. Class 10, Greenwood Sr Sec School, Rampur
I woke up as the Sun God peeped in our cave through a hole. I made the others get
up too. We were hungry. So we went out to get some food. As we thought we might
find some fierce animals in the forest, we carried our tools with us. Soon we were
among the trees that were full of fruits. We ate as much as we could and moved
towards the pond for water. We drank and sat there to rest. After some time, a lion
came there and paced towards us. We got attentive as he was going to attack us.
But soon he went away and we were very happy. At noon we took our lunch. When
it was growing dark we took our final meal. We lit up a fire and rested there for
some time. We carried one stick of fire each when we made our way back. On our
way, we met a tiger but he did not attack us as we had fire sticks. After searching
for a cave we made a fire and went to sleep.
Sent by Waseem Parvez Class 10, Greenwood Sr Sec School, Rampur
Today was an interesting day. We had a lot of fun. After worshipping
the sun in the morning we took our weapons and went to the
jungle for hunting. We hunted some animals and ate their raw
flesh. We also ate some fruits. Then we came back. Now was the
time for fun. We engaged ourselves in our favourite activities. I
made a cave drawing. I also went to the river for playing. The day
passed. At night, we ate some fruits, roots etc. Suddenly it started
raining, so we went in our cave. As we were tired, we slept soon,
except me. I went outside to sleep under the tree in the rain as I
love rain and trees. Hoping, tomorrow will be the same day, full
of fun as today.
Sent by Mohd Monis Class 10, Greenwood Sr Sec School, Rampur
VOL 4 No. 2
The life of early man was very different from the life of
modern man. In those days, men did not have any homes to
live in. They lived in forests. They did not live in one place.
They wandered here and there. Early man had to face many
difficulties. He found it difficult to protect himself from wild
animals. He was not as strong as the other animals. He did
not have any weapons to protect himself. He did not know how
to grow food for himself. He had to live on what he could find
and hunt. But it was not so easy to dig roots or kill animals
with bare hands. So the early man started using stones. He
saw that stone with sharp edges were more useful for killing.
Slowly he learnt to make simple tools from stone like tying a
sharp stone to the end of a long stick. Now he could kill an
animal without going near it.
The use of stone changed the life of early man. He
could protect himself and hunt more easily. He also noticed
that during forest fires, the animals were afraid of fire. So
he started using fire for protection. It protected him from the
cold and from animals. One day perhaps a piece of meat may
have got accidentally cooked in the fire. Man noticed that it
was soft and tasty. This is perhaps the way he started cooking
food.
Sometimes early man saw sparks when he broke stones
to make his tools. Then one day perhaps the sparks fell on
some dry leaves and there was a fire. Thus early man learnt
that fire could be made by striking two stones together. This
was an important step in the life of man.
Sent by Radhika Batra Class 5, DAV Public School Vikas Puri, New Delhi
QUIZ time
Find out the following:
1. When did humans discover how to make fire?
2. When did we start praying to a force more powerful than ourselves?
3. When did we start living in natural caves?
4. When did we start building shelters?
EVOLUTION of human beings
and their art
From 40,000-5,000 BC
Early human existence was marked by great struggle – for food, shelter, safety
and survival. They did not know how to grow food, so hunting and gathering was
necessary for them to survive. It was important for them to have knowledge about
the earth, what food was good to eat, when it would rain and which animals were
dangerous, as without this they would perish. It took many thousands of years
before they learned how to overcome dangers successfully and survive. They also
learned to use natural resources around them to make their life safer and easier.
As these early people evolved, some of their dwellings became places where they
started to make simple paintings about their life as well as their thoughts, fears,
hopes and victories.
Upper Paleolithic
UPPER PALEOLITHIC (40,000 – 12,000 BC)
Early man was slowly changed his habits from being a nomad to creating partial
settlements. He made temporary shelters to live in and places for storing food. His
hunting tools became sharper making him a more skilled hunter.
MESOLITHIC (12,000 – 10,000 BC)
He began to lead a more settled life, spending more time in one place. Fishing
tools, bows and arrows are also found from this time showing further development
in hunting techniques.
NEOLITHIC (8,000 – 5,000 BC)
The greatest development that occurred during this period was that man learnt
how to grow food and he no longer had to hunt for food every day. Wheat and millet
were the most common agricultural crops. He began to tame certain animals like
sheep and goats and use them for different purposes. Pieces of pottery have been
found in different parts of the world from around 6,000 BC. With the discovery of
copper around 5,000 BC, metal tools became common. Special tools were made
for grinding, cutting and chopping. This period is known as Chalcolithic period.
Mesolithic
Neolithic
VOL 4 No. 2
rock ART sites in india
FIND the ones closest to YOU
Jammu & Kashmir
1. Leh
2. Kargil
1
2
3
8
Uttarakhand
4
3. Uttarkashi
4. Pauri
5. Nainital
6. Almora
7. Pithoragarh
8. Chamoli
5
6
7
9
28
Uttar Pradesh
26
9. Agra
10. Banda
11. Allahabad
12. Varanasi
13. Mirzapur
33
Bihar
29
73
30
10
11
12
14
31
34
13
39 35
15
37 38
32
42
36
17
40
16
19 20
41
45
21
43 44
49 18
22
50
46
23
47
48
53
51 52
24
27
14. Nawada
25
Jharkhand
57
15. Chatra
16. Hazaribagh
17. Kodarma
18. Singhbhum
58
54
59
55
60
56
Chhattisgarh
19. Koria
20. Sarguja
21. Durg
22. Rajnandgaon
23. Raigarh
24. Kanker
25. Bastar
Rajasthan
26. Bundi
27. Kota
Madhya Pradesh
28. Morena
29. Gwalior
30. Datia
31. Shivpuri
64
66
71
67
62
65
61
63
68
69
72
70
32. Rajgarh
33. Mandsaur
34. Chatarpur
35. Damoh
36. Panna
37. Satna
38. Rewa
39. Vidisha
40. Bhopal
41. Sehore
42. Sagar
43. Raisen
44. Narsimhapur
45. Jabalpur
46. Hosangabad
47. East Nimur
48. Chindwara
52. Sambalpur
53. Kendujhar
59. Raichur
60. Bellary
68. Dindigul
69. Madurai
70. Tirunelveli
Andhra Pradesh
Tamil Nadu
Kerala
54. Patancheru
55. Kurnool
56. Chittoor
61. Vellore
62. Dhrmapuri
63. Villupuram
64. Nilgiris
65. Erode
66. Coimbatore
67. Theni
71. Malapuram
72. Idukki
Orissa
49. Sundargarh
50. Jharsuguda
51. Bargarh
Karnataka
57. Gulbarga
58. Belgaum
Manipur
73. Garo Hills
Bhimbetka
A World Heritage Site
The Discovery
In 1957, the archaeologist VS Wakankar was travelling by train to Bhopal. While
passing through Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, he noticed some unusual rock
formations. He returned to the site with a team where they found incredible
examples of rock art inside the caves.
The Landscape
In the foothills of the Vindhyas, less than 100 kms south of Bhopal, Bhimbetka is a
hill surrounded by deciduous forest with clusters of 20-30 natural sandstone rock
shelters where early man chose to stay. Beautiful paintings from the Mesolithic
Age were found inside the caves.
The Paintings
The paintings depict scenes from everyday life thousands of years ago: hunting
scenes, a variety of animals and people celebrating by playing musical instruments
and dancing. Apart from the paintings, 10,000 year old flints and stone tools made
by the hunting and food gathering people of that time have been found in the area.
VOL 4 No. 2
Colours
Twenty one colours have been used in the rock paintings in Bhimbetka including
white, ashy white, creamy white, yellow, yellow ochre, raw sienna, raw umber,
orange, dark orange, vermillion, scarlet, burnt sienna, emerald green, black
crimson, crimson lake and purple. These are made by crushing different coloured
natural rocks and stones found in nearby places.
Use natural colours to make your own original drawing on page 10.
Drawing Tools
Most of the paintings found in Bhimbetka have been painted using a finger. The
range of textures found in the paintings however tells us that they must have used
other materials like feathers, wooden sticks and perhaps the sharp needles of
porcupines to enrich their drawings.
Other Interesting Facts about Bhimbetka
• There are several layers of paintings found on the rock surfaces in Bhimbetka.
In some places, four or five layers of drawings have been discovered from different
times in human evolution. We can tell this because the colours and style of drawing
in each layer is different. This tells us that people used the same caves to live in at
different times in history.
• Writings in the Brahmi script found inscribed on some of the rock surfaces,
remains of a Buddhist stupa (probably from the 3rd – 4th century AD) and a temple
nearby show that the thread of evolution and man’s journey has left its mark in this
region.
• Objects similar to those seen in the paintings are still in use in the villages near
Bhimbetka. The tribes who live there continue to decorate their homes using
similar images and shapes as we see in the rock paintings. The continuity of
tradition over 10,000 years is one of the most remarkable features of Bhimbetka.
Finding Ancient Treasures
Rock Art in Jharkhand
In 2005, INTACH Convenor, Hazaribagh Chapter, Mr Bulu
Imam and his dedicated team completed a compilation on
the Rock Art sites they had discovered and documented in the
Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. The discovery represents
art that spans across over 5,000 years – from approximately
8,000 BC to 3,000 BC!
Some of the drawings seen in the Hazaribagh caves are hunting
scenes, but most of them are geometric patterns consisting of
squares, circles and triangles. The hunting scenes probably
belong to an earlier period of human evolution. The animal
figures are drawn far apart with a lot of space between them,
whereas the geometric figures or symbols are drawn very
close together, mostly in straight lines.
The coloured stones of certain oxides, haematite and kaolin
were used to get the different colours that we see in the
paintings. They were crushed and made wet using water, put
into leaf cups and then painted onto the stone walls using
stems of the local saal tree after chewing.
The geometric art of Hazaribagh has survived thousands
of years and can still be found on the walls of nearby
village homes. According to Mr Imam, certain regions of
Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh became a place of refuge for
prehistoric people who were driven out of the north by other
groups of people coming in. It is likely that it is a relic of
some of the earliest people who made their way into the
Indian subcontinent.
I WANT TO BE AN:
ARCHAEOLOGIST
ART CONSERVATOR
Exploringancientsitesandobjects Preserving murals, paintings
and sculptures
~ BHU, Varanasi: Advanced PG Diploma
1 year • www.bhu.ac.in ~ Deccan College
of Post-Graduate and Research Institute,
Yervada,Pune:www.indiaeducation.ernet.in
~ MS University of Baroda, Vadodara:
MA in Indian History, Culture and
Archaeology • www.msubaroda.ac.in
~ Punjab University, Chandigarh: MA
2 years • www.puchd.ac.in ~ University
of Calcutta: MA in Ancient History and
Archaeology•2years• www.caluniv.ac.in
~ National Museum, Delhi: MA
www.nationalmuseumindia.gov.in
~ University of Delhi:
www.du.ac.in
ANTHROPOLOGIST
Studyinghowdifferentpeoplelive
~ Pt.RavishankarShuklaUniversity,Raipur:
MA • 2 years • www.prsu.ac.in ~ Pune
University, Pune: MA • www.unipune.
ernet.in ~ Ranchi University:
www.educationinfoindia.com
~ UniversityofCalcutta:www.caluniv.ac.in
~ University of Delhi: BSc (Hons.), MSc,
MPhil, PhD • www.du.ac.in
~ Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar: MA
www.utkal-university.org
VOL 4 No. 2
name the animal
That people saw 10,000 years ago
Story Time
Get Creative!
Imagine you are Mr Wakankar’s Assistant Archaeologist and you have found these paintings.
Explain to Mr Wakankar what each one means and why you think it is so important.
Celebrating Natural Hues
Make a drawing
We want you to draw a picture in the space below using natural shades of colours, like those made by human beings 10,000
years ago. Mix different colours to get the shade that are closest to colours of natural materials.
VOL 4 No. 2
heritage alert
Preserving Rock Paintings
Preserving art in any form is a difficult process. Immovable art like rock art is even
more difficult because it cannot be wholly protected from natural elements like the
sun, rain, moisture, animals and birds. The heritage of such places can be called
non-renewable cultural resources, as they can never be made again. They are in
the gravest danger of being destroyed if proper steps are not taken to ensure their
protection and we will lose a priceless part of our heritage.
Damage due to natural deterioration
~ Moisture – water present in the rock surface, high humidity in the atmosphere
and other sources of moisture in or around the area can cause damage to the
surface of the painting. Water mixes with the salts to cause peeling, discolouration
and other forms of deterioration.
~ Temperature changes – Strong heat rays cause expansion and contraction to
occur on the surface of the rock causing the surface with the paint or drawing to
fade or flake off the surface.
~ The presence of plants, birds, insects and animals causes damage to the
rock surface.
Damage due to human interference
~ Graffiti – defacing the surface by touching, scratching and other means.
~ Irresponsible Tourism – uncontrolled and unsupervised visitors can damage the site.
~ Deforestation of the surrounding area removes a natural protective shelter,
Whatcanheritage
club members do?
When visiting any historic
place, remember:
~Do not throw any garbage in
or around the historic site.
~ Do not touch the painting as
body oils damage the natural
colours.
~ Food attracts animals and
birds so make sure you carry
back all snacks, wrappers,
bottles,etc.withyourselfwhen
you leave the place.
~ Tell others about the
importance of the place so
they may also learn to respect
it as part of India’s common
composite heritage.
exposing the site to sun, rain and erosion.
OneEarth,OneDNA,OnePeople
A recent study conducted by National
Geographic Society and IBM shows that
all people on this planet come from a
single male and female ancestor who
lived in Africa about 50,000 years ago.
This means that all people on earth
have the same great great great great
…….. grandparents. It does not matter
whether the colour of our skin is fair
or dark or what the shape of our nose
is. We are all earthlings and we are all
relatives!
The study shows that 50,000 years ago,
there were only about 10,000 human
beings on the entire planet and all of
them lived in Africa. But only one male
and one female gene survived over the
years and we have all evolved from the
same one pair. (A gene is a hereditary
component composed of DNA that
determines the particular features and
characteristics of a person.)
This fascinating study is still incomplete.
The researchers are now trying to see
how different groups of people moved
out of Africa and took different routes to
variouspartsoftheworldandevolvedso
differently that today we have hundreds
of races with distinct physical features
and cultural habits from each other.
Ted Waitt, head of the project, says,
“The more that we can improve our
understanding of the common origins
and journeys of humankind, the greater
the possibility for all of us to see each
other as members of the same family.”
what’s next?
Prize Winners
For the current issue
October - December, 2007
Theme: Endangered Species in a
Changing World
Makeoriginaldrawingsofendangered
animals, fish, insects, birds, plants
and trees along with their names
and the reasons why they are in such
gravedangertoday.Pleasemakeyour
drawings on separate plain paper so
we can print them in the next issue.
Last date for entry:
August 15th, 2007
January - March, 2008
Theme: Traditional Games and Toys
What games do you play?What games
did people play in ancient times? Ask
your grandparents and parents about
traditional games and toys. Send us
drawings and descriptions of these
games,orphotographsifyouhavesome
of these in your home. You can also
includesongsthataresungwhileplaying
certain games like skipping, etc.
Last date for entry:
November 15th, 2007
~ Prakhar Sharma, Waseem Parvez, Mohd Monis Class 10, Greenwood Sr
Sec School, Rampur
~ Radhika Batra Class 5, DAV Public School Vikas Puri, New Delhi
Feedback
We welcome your suggestion, comments and ideas. Please write to:
Radha Dayal
Heritage Education and Communication Service (HECS)
Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)
71 Lodi Estate, New Delhi – 110003.
Tel: (011) 24641304, 24645482, Fax: (011) 24611290
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.intach.org
Young INTACH
Heritage Education and Communication Service
Shobita Punja, Chief Programme Director
Research, Text and Compilation
Radha Dayal
References
Bednarik, Robert G. Rock Art Science.
New Delhi: Aryan Books International,
2007.
Bronowski, J. The Ascent of Man.
London: British Broadcasting
Corporation, 1976.
Imam, Bulu. Rockart of North
Jharkhand. Unpublished work, 2007.
Neumayer, Erwin. Prehistoric Indian
Rock Paintings. Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1983.
Credits
Bulu Imam
Rahas Mohanty
Pratibha Pande
Deepti Divya
Nidhi Gaur
Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, Delhi
Design
Kadambari Misra
Hindi Translation and Editing
Yatra Books
Printing
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