Imprints of Time: Reconstructing Prehistoric Expressions Through Digital Lenses

Ankita*, Anindya Sanyal, and Sachin Tiwary

This paper focuses on the rock paintings of the Raghubirgarh site in District Kaimur, Bihar, which we have selected for digitisation. The site majorly encapsulates four rock shelters, denoted as RBG-1, RBG-2, RBG-3, and RBG-4. Tentatively, the vast portrayal of patterns and figures across these shelters can be assigned to the Mesolithic and Historical periods. The study explores shelters that offer a tactile display of diverse pictographs and petroglyphs, primarily reflecting anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, community lifestyle, war sequences, weapons in use, cultural practices, pastoralism, geometric patterns, and shapes. There are instances depicting movements and X-ray-like human portrayals reflecting cognitive advances. Some compositions find themselves in secluded spaces, while others are cluttered and unevenly distributed. Superimpositions are widespread on both crooked and undulating soft surfaces. Not only this, but a copious storehouse of intimate and evocative themes reflecting matriarchal and symbiotic affiliations is also interspersed across the shelters of this region. The study adopts an integrated methodological framework combining systematic field documentation and digital image enhancement for systematic assessment of rock art illustrations. Image processing software such as DStretch and Adobe Illustrator has been leveraged to identify less visible motifs and patterns otherwise imperceptible to the naked eye. The study aims to evaluate the extent of variation that digital enhancement creates in establishing a cost-effective and time-efficient workflow for rock art digitisation and maintain archival depositories of digitised images to conserve their intrinsic value and make them accessible for future research.