Paleolithic cave paintings found in NCR

• Archeologists have discovered a cave painting in a rocky and forested corner of Haryana in Aravali mountain ranges.
• They believe they belong to the Upper Palaeolithic age, which could potentially make them one of the oldest cave arts in the country.

• The caves are nestled amid a maze of quartzite rocks in the Aravalli mountain ranges near the holy grove called Mangar Bani, the region’s only surviving patch of primary forest.

• Most pre-historic sites have been traced in the Aravalli region.

• Unlike Central India and other places that are rich in rock paintings, no rock paintings have been found in Aravali till now.

• Earlier, tools from the Palaeolithic Age have been identified earlier in parts of the Aravallis,

• It is for the first time that cave paintings and rock art of a large magnitude have been found in Haryana.

Mangar cave paintings:

• The Mangar cave art is 20,000-40,000 years old.
• Most of the paintings are ochre, but some are white
• Cave paintings in white are usually from a later stage (early contemporary era), while Stone Age paintings are more often than not, ochre.
• Cave paintings comprising images of human figurines, animals, foliage, and geometric, some that have paled over time, but others that are still very visible.
• It also encountered rock art and open-air ceremonial sites.

• While some could be spotted in the open air, a majority of them are on the ceilings of the rock shelters.
• The site may have possibly remained relatively undiscovered over the years due to thick vegetation.
• The paintings are yet to be dated but at least some of them belong to the Upper Palaeolithic period in all likelihood.
• According to them, the paintings in continuation with the Soanian culture which has been found in Shivalik hills, Narmada and Aravallis,

Palaeolithic Age:

• The term ‘Palaeolithic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘palaeo’ which means old and ‘lithic’ meaning stone.
• Basically a hunting and food gathering culture.
• Palaeolithic tools include sharpened stone, chopper, hand axe, scraper, spear, bow and arrow, etc. and were generally made up of hard rock quartzite.
• Palaeolithic age in India is divided into three phases: Early or Lower Palaeolithic (50,0000 – 100,000 BC), Middle Palaeolithic(100,000 – 40,000 BC) and Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 – 10,000 BC).

Soanian culture:

• The Soanian is an archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic in the Sivalik Hills of the Indian subcontinent.
• It is named after the Soan Valley in Pakistan.
• The river Soan is a tributary of the great river Indus that flows through the city of Rawalpindi in Potwar region.
• Soanian sites are found along the Sivalik region in present-day India, Nepal, and Pakistan.