Ambadevi rock shelters

Discovery

The previously unrecorded site was discovered by Vijay Ingole and his colleagues (Padmakar Lad, Manohar Khode, Shirish Kumar Patil, Dnyaneshwar Damahe, and Pradeep Hirurkar) on 27 January 2007. Amateur naturalists and bird watchers also explored the area until 2012. More than 100 rock shelters were identified of which at least 30 contain hundreds of pictographs, petroglyphs and stone artifacts. The settlement period of the site ranges from the Upper Paleolithic (25,000 to 15,000 BCE) to the Neolithic (10,000 to 5,000 BCE), the Chalcolithic (after 5,000 BCE) and the Iron Age (1,200 to 600 BCE). Sediment, artefact and stratigraphy studies suggest a continuous sequence of human presence during the entire period.

In 2011, further exploration was undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under Sahu and her team. More than 225 rock shelters were identified that contained paintings, engravings, and stone tools. Stone tools fashioned out of a cryptocrystalline material like chert, chalcedony, or jasper were discovered in and around several shelters.

Rock art and paintings

The rock shelters of Ambadevi contain hundreds of paintings and pieces of rock art. The oldest paintings are considered to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old.

Pictographs

Most of these paintings are red in color and the pigment appears to have been prepared from hematite, red blood, fat and plants. In a few places, green, white, black and yellow pigments have been used. The paintings mainly depict animals (tortoises, fish, birds), humans, hand impressions, geometric figures, hunting scenes, war scenes, and abstract geometrical figures. Pictographs are painted on vertical wall surfaces, ceilings and hollow rock cavities. The oldest pictograph, known as Animal Zoo, depicts carnivorous mammals, such as tigers, leopards, hyenas, jackals, aardvarks (an extinct ant-eater) and wild dogs. Further paintings feature omnivores, like bears, herbivores like Nilgais, spotted deer, barasingha, sambar, the Indian rhinoceros, the now extinct sivatherium and numerous unidentifiable species.

All animal pictures face to the right. Carnivorous and omnivorous animals have distinctive thick foot pads. Herbivorous animals have no foot pads. All paintings are red with colorful bodies. The paintings are well preserved and have been well protected from monsoon rains as they faced northeast. In one shelter, wild boar, tortoises, fish, porcupines, monkeys and vultures are depicted in line drawings. another shelter includes an abstract human drawing with exaggerated male genitals (phallus and testicles) (Bhairao-an incarnation of Shiva) and in a nearby river a natural stone projection that resembles a phallus was identified to have been worshipped. This is considered to be one of the oldest places of an idolatry of the lingam. A nearby tomb-like entity covered with stones includes a painting of a human figure riding an elephant. A number of figures in the Indian Warli style were also identified, as were geometric figures and motifs colored in red and white. Several animal paintings are decorated with geometric lines.

Petroglyphs

Many rock shelters feature carvings shaped like animals, trees, humans and female genitals (vulvae). In one of the shelters an engraving of four bulls was identified on the face of the shelter. An image of a lotus flower with petals painted in a way to mimic a vulva was also found. Some petroglyphs found depict standalone humans, elephants with riders, tree, deer and a flying squirrel.