Art rocking Cabo de Rama fort

Unknown to many, Cabo De Rama has a strong pre-historic importance to the state of Goa. Rock art, megaliths and geoglyphs that are the first of its kind are present in Goa.

This discovery was made by Sarvesh Sinai Borkar, Archaeoastronomy enthusiast who had visited Cabo de Rama two years ago and documented the area.

He found some pre-historic petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) and petroforms (also known as boulder outlines or boulder mosaics), on this plateau with engravings made by nomadic hunters which may be of the Mesolithic age or older.

The petro-glyphs are found worldwide and the word come from the Greek word petra meaning stone and glyphein meaning to carve.

This site consists of a few petroglyphs engraved on the laterite surface which include birds and animals like bulls, snakes, owls, monkeys, fish like engraving and some abstract geometrical images along with two water ponds.

He also found some laterite stone boulders or megaliths as they are called arranged in a big circle which may have enabled these nomadic people to determine accurately the moon’s or sun’s progress by a marker post along the arc of the pits.

The term Megaliths is a broad term used to classify any large stone object placed at a specific location for some presumed purpose. The word megalith comes from the Greek words ‘megathos’ referring to the large scale and ‘lithoi’ meaning material, i.e. stone. Thus, megalith literally means “built of large stones”. This terminology arose because the earliest monuments were the ones with the most impressive surface markers.

“These boulders may have been used as an astronomical calendar with rocks aligned to point out the direction or lunar events; orientation preferences of these megalithic monuments seem to suggest intentional orientation of several megaliths towards points of celestial significance on the local horizon. The intentional orientation of several pairs of megaliths to the solstice sunrises and sunsets does itself constitute a calendar device, a detailed survey and analysis of these sites could pave the way for a better understanding of megalithic astronomy in Goa,” added Sarvesh.

Sarvesh further pointed out that the late hour of darkness must have been important to hunters and phases of moon would have been significant cycles through which these people must have carried their activities of food gathering. “The moon also influences the tidal ranges  and these may  have been vital for people relying on the sea for their food ,by knowing the cycles of moon people could predict when they should do their gathering activities as times when moons light enabled them to move freely throughout t the night,” added Sarvesh. 

After months of measuring and observation what he called as ‘kalchakra’ or the calendar, he found that there are at least 3 monoliths aligned towards the sunrise others were aligned to the cardinal points of Earth -- north, south, east and west, perfectly aligned with the rise and fall of the Sun. “It determined the solstices and the equinoxes and  have evidence for many pairs of stones forming straight-lines to the sunrise and sunset points on the local horizon during both the solstices and the equinoxes,” said Sarvesh 

For example, ‘The king stone or the center stone’  at 90 degrees is aligned  to the sunrise of March equinox and the Sun can be seen setting at 270 degree which is also marked by a marker stone at exact west of the fort which is the western marker

Little further from these site he also  found a petroforms of demon shape or human figures which is 20-25 feet long  which have never been found before in Goa.  There is a Geoglyph of what he calls ‘The Cosmic Man’, or the huge sleeping man like natural structure on the exact north of Cabo de Rama fort. 

Sarvesh claims that these series of ancient geoglyphs are first of its kind to be found in Goa which may have some similarity with the Nasca geoglyphs.