Later Acheulian Marking Motifs II - Other Sites / a)bhim

Auditorium Cave, India, Acheulian, >290,000 BP, cupule along with undulating, meander line; possible other cupule sites of Acheulian age in India but dating of these sites is insecure.

"Older still are the petroglyphs in Auditorium Cave (Bhimbetka Site III F-24), two of which were found covered by undisturbed Paleolithic strata . . .. There is a large, circular cup mark on a massive floor boulder, and a pecked meandering line that approaches the cupule, then runs parallel to its edge for a distance before it veers off again and peters out. These heavily corroded marks were found in 1990 at more than 1.5 m depth in an existing excavation trench. They occur below a Middle Paleolithic occupation deposit, near its interface with the upper of two Acheulian horizons. (Bednarik 1993a:138)." For stratigraphy details see Bednarik 1993b, which also notes "the line approaches the large cupule from above, then follows part of its circumference, running parallel to it but maintaining some millimetres distance from its periphery, and veers off to right" (35). Further (Bednarik 1996:64) ". . . on the third day of my four trips to Bhimbetka, Dr. Giriraj Kumar and I noticed . . . in the western bedrock wall . . . four stone implements. Two of the latter were nondescript large flakes, but the two others permitted a cultural attribution: a large quartzite cleaver and a well-made ‘handaxe’, also of local quartzite. The biface, a typical pear-shaped, concave sided late Acheulian ‘handaxe,’ remains so tightly wedged into a cleft in the bedrock that its removal would involve the application of considerable force. This chance find permitted me to confirm the validity of Wakankar’s section drawing, and it proves beyond doubt that the petroglyphs were concealed by a substantial part of the Acheulian deposit. They are located less than two metres laterally from the in situ tools, but nearly a metre below them. Since the overlying substantial Middle Paleolithic layer consists entirely of carbonate-cemented material the possibility of post-depositional disturbance of the stratigraphy does not exist." Bednarik (2002) notes that the beginning of the Indian Middle Paleolithic is dated from 200,000 to 150,000 BP and Indian Late Acheulian is >290,000 BP.

Photo © Robert G. Bednarik. Courtesy Robert G. Bednarik. This image is copyrighted by its owner, Robert G. Bednarik, to whom requests for any use must be directed. This is a low resolution file of the original image. Referenced in Bednarik, R.G. (2002) Cupules: The oldest surviving rock art. http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/user_files/c/cognit/myfiles/newsletters/cupules.pdf; (1996). The cupules on Chief’s Rock, Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka. The Artefact 19:63-72; (1993a). About cupules. Rock Art Research 10,2:138-139; (1993b). Palaeolithic art in India. Man and Environment XVIII,2:33-40.