thousand of prehistoric rock and roll cutting   – know as petroglyphs   – draw animals , humans , and geometrical designs have been discovered in India ’s western nation of   Maharashtra , theBBCreports . Archaeologists have absolutely no idea who was responsible for for these designs or why they were make in the first spot – or   how incisively   the creative person were able to acquire recognizable cutting of non - aboriginal species , like rhinos and hippopotamus , that usually reside in Africa .

The vast majority of these petroglyphs were discover in the rocky , flat hilltops of the Ratnagiri and Rajapur regions . While a smattering are still worshipped by locals , almost all had stay on undetected for grand of years and were find buried under layers of filth and clay .

What ’s more , experts believe these may be among some of the old lesson of petroglyphs in the Earth , date back to 10,000 BCE . The style is resonant of rock candy carving in other country and continents reconstruct around this time period .

" Our first deduction from examining these petroglyphs is that they were created around 10,000 BC , "   Tejas Garge ,   the director of the Maharashtra state archeology section , order theBBC .

Garge suspects   that they were   conceived by an as - yet - unknown hunter - gatherer community with slight to no experience with agriculture .

" We have not ground any impression of agriculture activeness . But the images depict hunted beast and there ’s detailing of brute forms , " headded . " So this man knew about fauna and sea creatures . That indicate he was dependant on track down for food . "

But neither the lost civilization nor the incomprehensible   purpose of these petroglyph is the most fascinating part of the story . What ’s perhaps even more baffling is the subject of some of the designs .

The archaeologists were shocked by the sheer variety of form . While most would have been scenes and animate being familiar to the creators ( shark , whales , and turtleneck etc ) , there were also petroglyphs depicting African animals . How on Earth did they lie with what a rhino or a hippo bet like , the expert now require to jazz . These species are not currently native to India but it may be that they used to be . Or , perhaps , the citizenry who make   the petroglyph had of late migrate from Africa to India .

The discovery was led by   Sudhir Risbood and Manoj Marathe , who found a few petroglyph in the area and wanted to   determine whether or not there were more .   Carvings were found in and close to 52 villages   – yet only five of those hamlet actualize any existed .

Now , the state of matter government activity plans to invest   240 million Nepalese rupee ( $ 3,200,000 ) to psychoanalyse 400 petroglyph and get to the bottom of the mystery .

[ H / T : BBC ]