Geoglyphs discovered in Thar Desert
GS PAPER I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Context: Using Google Earth images, drone observations and field visits, two independent researchers from France have identified eight sites around Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert, that show linear features resembling geoglyphs.
- Geoglyphs are large, un-explained geometrical patterns on land usually proposed to be man-made features.
- The largest concentration of geoglyphs is reported from southern Peru, covering an area of about 1,000 square km.
- The new paper published in Archaeological Research in Asia notes that the identified geoglyphs in the Thar Desert cover an area of about 6 square km.
- In Boha, a small village 40 km to the north of Jaisalmer a series of concentric and linear features were noticed. They named these features Boha geoglyphs and suggested that the features could be at least 150 years old.
- It is however conceivable that they were built at the beginning of the British colonial period, in the middle of the 19th century.
- The Boha geoglyphs are clearly manmade as the main unit is a giant spiral, but they have been eroded due to the cars running over the lines lately. So, they are clearly not formed by weathering or another natural phenomenon.
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