An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c10.s1.13

v1.c10.s1.13

For dating of painted rock-shelters in India [13] evidence of superimposition of paintings is used in building up a relative sequence, while the subject matter and comparison of paintings with other dated cultures and discovery in association with the cultural material of the material used for or with fragments of paintings establishes the position in terms of the artefactual material. The paintings on the rock-shelters at Bhimbetka which have been studied on these bases have been divided into nine phases on the evidence of superimpositions. The paintings of phase VII to IX, on the basis of the subject and mode of depiction, have been placed in the 1st millennium a.d. or even later, while the paintings of phase VI have been noticed to show influence of Chalcolithic [4.14] pottery and are therefore perhaps considered to be of the 2nd millennium and early 1st millennium b.c. The paintings of phases I to V antedate the 2nd millennium b.c. and the earliest among them are dated 10000 years before present. The subject matter also shows a hunting-gathering way of life and does not provide any evidence of agriculture, settled life or domestication of animals. Pieces of haematite, used in the paintings, found in Mesolithic levels also indicate that painting activity was carried out in this phase to which the oldest paintings can be assigned (Misra *et. al.*, 1977, p. 22; Wakankar and Brooks, 1976, pp. 22-8).