A Natural Work of Art May Be Hiding Among Indian Cave Masterpieces
What may be an overlooked fossil in a well-known cultural site could offer clues to the age of its underlying rocks.
Cave paintings at the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters in Madhya Pradesh in India.Credit.Frédéric Soltan/Corbis, via Getty Images
By Joshua Sokol
Feb. 5, 2021
Ten thousand years ago or more, people started painting the walls of caves near Bhopal, India. Over the millenniums they made thousands of images in what are now called the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters: men, women, a couple having sex, dancers, children, hunts, battles, about 29 different animal species and mythical beasts like a part-boar part-ox part-elephant.