Boha's Geoglyph

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World's Largest geoglyph in Boha, Rajasthan

Boha is a medium-sized village in the Jaisalmer Tehsil in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. According to the 2011 Population Census.

Independent French researchers Carlo Oetheimer and Yohann Oetheimer recently published a paper discussing their findings in Thar, Rajasthan, and the discovery of possibly the world’s biggest geoglyphs, that surpass the famous Peruvian Nazca lines.

Geoglyph in Boha: Details

1. The enigmatic lines have been discovered in Boha village in Rajasthan. The village is approximately 30 miles in area.
2. Among the geoglyphs found, the largest is named Boha 1. These are asymmetrical spiral lines that measure around 7.5 miles.
3. The next multi-patterned geoglyph lying next to it is named Boha 2.
4. As per the researchers, the lines and the drawings are unique in the world and are made up of many enigmatic signs.

Carlo and Yohann Oetheimer found these in the year 2016 and conducted drone research on them to discover two geoglyphs. They also said the geoglyphs were so large that those who made them could never take a glimpse of them at once.

On the eighth site in Boha, the father-son duo found four distinctive symbols. They were 20 inch wide lines having varying length and complexity.

One site east of Boha, in contrast, is significantly different from the rest: The lines in this area are enormous, uniquely patterned, and do not appear to be associated with any plantations. The Boha 1 spiral stands out as the ultimate giant of the cluster, but Boha 2 is arguably stranger, as it includes a serpentine line, a small spiral, and a huge sequence of subparallel straight lines connected by rounded U-shaped turns (the “boustrophedon”). The lines linked to these two main figures add up to almost 16 miles, but there are also smaller geoglyphs in the area that reveal other puzzling abstract designs. The Oetheimers estimate that the lines are at least 150-years-old based on the vegetation that has grown over them, among other factors, and they plan to use thermoluminescence dating to pin down a more precise age in the future. The team also noted that the geoglyphs coincide with the location of intriguing archaeological artifacts that might be associated with the figures, including cairns, memorial stones, and nine monoliths of various shapes and sizes, with the tallest standing more than five feet high, underscoring another possible avenue of future research. The geoglyphs may have been etched into the desert using a camel-drawn plow according to the study, but the motivation for making them remains the biggest and most tantalizing enigma. The region is too flat to appreciably observe the figures from a height, casting doubt on the efficacy of the lines as landmarks. Though the researchers emphasize that much more work needs to be done, including efforts to protect the geoglyphs from erosion, they speculate that the figures may have a religious or cosmological interpretation. “At this stage of the research, we remain convinced that these unique geoglyphs are closely connected to their geographical and cultural context, and possibly contain a universal message linked to the Sacred and the cosmos,” concluded the Oetheimers.

Boha's Geoglyph

Figure Of Boha's Geoglyph

The two researchers found a series of these linear figures in Boha, a small village located around 40 km from Jaisalmer.

“Two remarkable geometrical figures: a giant spiral adjacent to an atypical serpent-shaped drawing, are connected with a cluster of sinuous lines. This triad extends over 20.8 ha and totals more than half of the 48 km of lines observed. "Three memorial stones positioned at key points give evidence that planimetric knowledge has been used to create this elaborate design,” the paper states.

The researchers say that these geoglyphs are the largest ones discovered worldwide, and the first of their kind in the Indian subcontinent.

The largest figure was named Boha 1, and is a giant asymmetrical spiral made from a single line that loops and runs for around 12 kilometres. “The Boha 1 unit interpreted as a series of 12 eccentric ellipses, was revealed to be a huge spiral,” the paper reads.

Boha 2 is a serpentine figure, around 11 km long. “By analogy these curves replicate a boustrophedon. This term refers to primitive writings whose lines can be read from left to right and then from right to left, in the same way a plow travels in a field. The inflection points in the lines generate a gap of 4.7–14 m between them,” reads the paper.

Boha 3 and 4 included a series of meandering lines, and “two iconographic units, adjacent to the previous ones, draw about 80 serpentine lines between 40 and 200 m long. Boha 3 forms a cluster of lines oriented towards the NE, immediately at the apex of the giant spiral.

Boha 4, on the other hand, is located about 50 meters away, SW of the boustrophedon. We experienced more difficulty achieving a precise mapping because many of these lines are heavily eroded. They have generally random sinuosities and adopt rhythmic undulations that look like braids in two areas”.

While these figures stretched for about 48 kilometres, the researchers suggested that the distance might have once been around 80 km. The authors say, “The giant spiral and serpentine figure are definitely the major points of interest, closely connected to Boha 3, suggesting that all the other geoglyphs were created as a framework for this set. Due to their spatial contiguity, [these] can be perceived as a sequential project. We still have to identify the semantic relationships binding them. However, we can interpret the construction stages of this triptych, guided by their layout and the principle of simplicity.”

The duo further explain, “Our observations suggest that a plow-type tool could have been used, possibly pulled by a camel on loose deposits, as commonly practiced by the Thar Desert farmers. This process, which does not exclude manual finishing, would explain the many inflection points in the lines. It should be noted that a small rock outcrop has been carved, indicating a concern to preserve the continuity of the line. These observations suggest that the creation of the Boha geoglyphs did not represent a considerable labor investment.”

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References

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