Archaeologists have found a new “lost” civilisation in India, one that had never been suspected of existing.

They were searching the Konkan region of Maharashtra in India when they found thousands of carvings in the rocks on hilltops. The carvings had been partly covered in mud and dirt, but local people knew they existed and believed they had been placed there by the gods.

The carvings are of humans, animals, birds and shapes, and seem to be about 12,000 years old. After discovering the hill carvings, searches in surrounding villages found the same carvings in temples in around 50 local villages.

Th carvings are unlike anything else found in India, but crucially they also contain animals like hippos and rhinos not found in that part of India, as well as sea life such as whales, turtles and sharks, so the people who made them must have travelled far from this area, and therefore were hunter-gatherers who migrated around India rather than being settled in one place.