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May 27, 2021 02:02 am

Enigmatic Designs Found in India May Be The Largest Images Ever Made by Human Hands

Hidden in the vast, arid expanses of India's Thar Desert lie mysterious old drawings that may be the largest-ever graphical depictions designed by humans. ScienceAlert reports: "So far, these geoglyphs, the largest discovered worldwide and for the first time in the Indian subcontinent, are also unique as regards their enigmatic signs," researchers explain in a new paper detailing the find. Discovered by a pair of independent researchers from France -- Carlo and Yohann Oetheimer -- the new geoglyphs were spotted using Google Earth, during a virtual survey of the Thar Desert region (also known as the Great Indian Desert); this region encompasses some 200,000 square kilometers (roughly 77,000 square miles) of territory overlapping India and Pakistan. Amidst this huge, dry landscape, the Oetheimers identified several sites located around the 'Golden City' of Jaisalmer, marked by geometrical lines resembling geoglyphs. Closer inspection during a field study in 2016 using an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) revealed some of the identified sites were furrows dug for tree plantations, but also helped reveal a cluster of enigmatic line formations seemingly absent of trees. In particular, two "remarkable geometrical figures" of exceptional character close to the village of Boha stood out: a giant spiral and a serpent-shaped drawing, each connected by a cluster of sinuous lines. The lines that make up these figures are stripes etched into the ground, ranging up to 10 centimeters deep (4 in) and spreading 20 to 50 cm wide (8-20 in). While these dimensions up close may be unremarkable, what they end up making up is not. The largest geoglyph identified, the giant asymmetrical spiral (called Boha 1), is made from a single looping line running for 12 kilometers (7.5 miles), over an area 724 meters long by 201 meters wide (790 by 220 yards). To the southwest of this huge vortex shape rests a serpentine geoglyph (Boha 2), composed of an 11-kilometer long line, which encompasses a serpent-like figure, a smaller spiral, and a long boustrophedon-style sequence of lines running back and forth. Other small geoglyphs can also be found in the Boha region (including a feature of meandering lines, called Boha 3), which in total includes around 48 kilometers of still visible lines today, which the researchers estimate may once have extended for about 80 kilometers. The researchers say it's unlikely these designs were intended as a form of artistic expression contemplated from the ground, but rather might have served as an unkown type of cultural practice in their making. "Because of their uniqueness, we can speculate that they could represent a commemoration of an exceptional celestial event observed locally."

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