Palaeolithic site found in Faridabad's hill forest may be largest in Indian subcontinent

Archaeologists in Haryana have found one of the “largest” prehistoric sites in Faridabad’s Mangar Bani hill forest, where paintings in cave dwellings estimated to be hundreds of thousand years old were discovered earlier in May, the state archaeological department said in a release on Sunday, as cited by ANI. The site, abound in various open-air rock shelters, also hosted Stone Age tools and equipment that could be from a million years ago. The new findings can potentially help scientists shed light on the life of the prehistoric men that occupied these ancient dwellings. The artistic paintings in stone age caves in these forests were first spotted by environmental activist Sunil Harsana. 

The state archaeological department had initially started exploring the Palaeolithic site in Mangar Bani hill forest after Harsana, who has been working towards the conservation of the Mangar village for over 10 years, found primitive mysterious shelters with paintings in them. This led Haryana’s archaeological department to explore the surrounding areas including Shilakhari, Mangar, Kot, Dhauj, Roj ka Gujjar, and Damdama in Mangarbani and adjoining regions in Gurugram in June.

[Credit: ANI]

Banani Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director of the Haryana Archaeology and Museums Department, told ANI, "On the basis of this exploration, it can be said that this may be one of the biggest Palaeolithic sites in the Indian sub-continent, where stone age tools were recovered from different open-air sites as well as from rock shelters.”

He added, “Though 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.” 

The cave paintings, which are yet to be officially dated, are estimated to be prehistoric and only a few are being suspected to belong during the later phases. "It should also be mentioned that Shalaish Baisla, a student of archaeology who has been working in the area for the last two years, also discovered a stone age site along with rock shelters first in this area,” Bhattacharyya told ANI over the phone. However, archaeologists are yet to find such cave drawings in Aravallis, which currently is not a protected site, as it hasn’t been properly documented and neither appropriately explored.

[Credit: ANI]

Illegal mining activity may have 'destroyed' many sites

According to Sunil Harsana, several such sites may actually have been destroyed due to illegal mining activity, although, there were still hopes for many such paintings to exist at sites that are untouched. This artwork has the potential to take scientists to the history of Haryana millions of years ago, said Harsana. Furthermore, he stressed, that it is difficult to make out what the paintings are of. 

"For the past 10 years, I have been trying to save this Mangar village area and have conducted conservation activities, documentation and projects. I shared the pictures with the people who work in this field and shared them on my social media account. Someone approached the archaeological department and they visited the site. After we showed them the cave paintings, they confirmed that these paintings are ancient and soon they will work on them," activist Harsana told ANI.

He adds, "It is difficult to reach the place where these paintings have been found. Some negative elements go there, but I don't think any artist will go there and paint. The style in which the painting is made is very unique. The paintings are deep inside the caves where only the bats live"