Geoglyph discovered in Telangana

November 9, 2023

A geoglyph in the form of a circle, said to be 3,000 years old, has been unearthed on the outskirts of Mudichu Thalapalli in the Medchal-Malkajgiri district of Telangana.

Geoglyphs are a form of rock art, where a design or motif is etched on the ground using stones, iron or some other tools used by prehistoric humans.

In this case, archaeologists believe that iron was used in making the geoglyph through a process called ‘pecking.’

It is a first-of-its-kind discovery in Telangana.
- Etched on a low-lying granitoid hillock, the geoglyph spans 7.5 metres in diameter and has a perfect circular shape.
- Surrounding the circle is a 30-centimetre-wide rim, and within the circle are two triangles.
A prehistoric rock art expert has dated the geoglyph to the Iron Age, specifically around 1000 BCE.
He suggested that this circle might have served as a model for megalithic communities in planning their circular burial sites.
The geoglyph displays the artistic skills and etching techniques of Telangana’s Iron Age inhabitants.
Earlier, archaeologists had discovered three prehistoric rock shelters located within a radius of 1 km from this site, where prehistoric rock art was found, with the images of bulls, deer, porcupine, and humans found on the rocks inside those rock shelters.
- The rock art was found to have been from the Mesolithic and Megalithic periods (8500 BC- 1000 BC).