Palaeolithic rock art.

Palaeolithic Rock Art and Cults: Prehistoric art was carried out either on stones or bones.

The materials like mud, charcoal, shell, teeth and horn have also been used. There are evidences of modeling done with simple mud or bone ash mixed with it.

Also evidences are found about the portable art in the form of ostrich egg shell beads and engraved fragments.

The eggshells of ostrich were used to make beads and ornaments and some of them had a hole through which they could be strung.

The observations made by Upinder Singh reveals about the discovery of Ostrich eggshell beads in an Upper Palaeolithic burial context at Bhimbetka rock shelter, found on the neck of the skull of a buried man. 

The caves and rock shelters of Bhimbetka are the best examples of mural art.

The rock paintings here belong to Upper Palaeolithic which includes linear representations in green and dark red colours of herds of huge animals like the rhinoceroses, bison, wild buffaloes, mammoths and boars.

The other discoveries includes carved bone object found at Lohanda Nala in the Belan valley in Uttar Pradesh which had been identified as a mother Goddess figurine by some and as a spoon by others and animal teeth have been found in one of the Kurnool caves which had grooves which suggests that they may have been attached to a string and worn as ornaments.

Another discovery is that of a large rock in the middle of the cave which is flat and vertical surface of the rock that faces the tunnel has seven cupules (cup like depressions) up to 16.8 mm deep.

There is another rock which has one large cup mark along with a meandering line carved on its surface.

A circular platform made of sandstone rubble is found at the site of Baghor-l in Madhya Pradesh have given evidence of an Upper Palaeolithic shrine dated to 9000-8000 BCE.

When the ten pieces were joined together, it formed a triangle 15 cms. high, 6.5 cms. wide and 6.5 cms. thick. 

The study reveals that such a platform is made even today and worship similar triangular stones as a symbol of the Female Principle.

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