BENGALURU: The Karnataka Tourism Department has opened an exhibition titled “Hirebenakal: Landscapes of the Ancients” at the Venkatappa Art Gallery, offering a rare glimpse into rock art and burial sites dating back 4,000 to 5,000 years. The showcase highlights Neolithic cave paintings and dolmens from the Hirebenakal region, which has been tentatively listed for UNESCO World Heritage status.
Among the striking discoveries is a red ochre engraving of a boar beneath a massive rock and a painting of a woman giving birth—mystical images stretching across the ceilings of caves. Archaeologists and historians continue to puzzle over how ancient communities created such large and elevated artworks, and what symbolic or ritual meanings they carried.
The exhibition features work from Project SKaAT (Showcasing Karnataka’s Ancient Treasures), whose team—Dinesh Maneer, Sudheer Hegde, Manish S., Shilpa Hegde, and Dheeraj—documented the site in just five days, capturing 65 megalithic specimens, including 32 rock art pieces and 19 dolmens.
The dolmens, or megalithic burial monuments, and the paintings together shed light on Neolithic society’s relationship with death, memory, and symbolic expression. Experts say these sites offer a vital window into how early communities sought to interpret their world through ritual, art, and collective identity.
The exhibition situates the Hirebenakal landscape—its vast skies, rugged hills, and sacred rock shelters—as both a cultural treasure and a potential addition to the world’s protected heritage sites.
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