Adamgarh Rock Shelters
आदमगढ़ · Adamgarh Hills · Hoshangabad Rock Art · Narmada Rock Shelters
Mesolithic to Early Historic (8000 BCE – 1000 CE)·Mesolithic Narmada Hunter-Gatherers, Chalcolithic Malwa, Historic tribal (Gond)·🇮🇳 Madhya Pradesh, Narmadapuram (Hoshangabad), India
About
About Adamgarh Rock Shelters
Quartzite sandstone hills on the south bank of the Narmada isolating 30+ shelters with Mesolithic to historic pictographs in red, white and yellow hematite. Best-known panels display processional archers, horsemen, humped cattle, and a celebrated 8,000-year hunting scene of a giant buffalo hunt with microlithic spears, as well as a later Chalcolithic warrior in a spiked helmet. Lower levels yielded stratified microliths, Acheulean bifaces and Chalcolithic pottery tying pigment phases to Narmada valley hunter-gatherer to early farming transition. The site bridges central Indian rock art between Bhimbetka (45 km) and the Deccan.
Why it mattersType Mesolithic rock-shelter Habitation-cum-art site for central Narmada; documents microlithic technology to art transition before Bhimbetka intensification.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether buffalo-hunt depicts extinct Bos namadicus
- 02Relation to Acheulean substratum below Mesolithic
Theories
- 01River crossing aggregation camp for monsoon dispersal
- 02Transitional art from portable microliths to monumental shelter painting
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.8000 BCE – 1000 CE; main Mesolithic 7000–3000 BCE
- Period
- Mesolithic to Early Historic (8000 BCE – 1000 CE)
- Culture
- Mesolithic Narmada Hunter-Gatherers, Chalcolithic Malwa, Historic tribal (Gond)
- Builders
- Narmada microlithic foragers to Chalcolithic pastoralists
- Purpose
- Rock-shelter habitation and aggregation painting marking river crossing and seasonal hunting grounds
- Abandoned
- c.1000 CE with village shift to plains
- Rediscovered
- 1922 D.R. Manor and 1950s V.S. Wakankar recording
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
8000–7000 BCE
Early white archers and buffalo hunt
3000–2000 BCE
Chalcolithic cattle and spiked-helmet warrior
1959
Wakankar excavates stratified microliths beneath Shelter 4
On the ground
Structures & features
22.6800° N · 77.7300° E · 350 m · 3 mapped features
- Shelter No.4 Buffalo HuntpanelFamous 8-m panel with 12 archers attacking giant buffalo22.6805° N · 77.7305° E
- Shelter No.12 Warrior PanelpanelSpiked-helmet warrior with cattle and geometric signs22.6795° N · 77.7310° E
- Stratified Trench FloorexcavationMicrolith and pottery sequence below Shelter 422.6802° N · 77.7302° E
Gallery