Mudumal Menhirs Eyed for Unesco List

Hyderabad: After Ramappa Temple, Telangana is preparing to secure another Unesco world heritage tag, this time for the Mudumal Menhirs in Narayanpet district. The site is already on the Unesco s tentative list.

The state heritage department plans to undertake excavations with support from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) to conduct a scientific study and determine the age of the structure.

The Mudumal menhirs are believed to be around 3,500 years old. Terracotta and mud artefacts recovered from the site will undergo thermoluminescence testing to determine their age, and metal traces are expected to include copper and iron.

The excavation will also look for metal objects such as copper and iron, and explore whether people were buried at the site to understand their origins.

A request for excavation approval has been submitted to the Archaeological Survey of India and is expected shortly, said Prof. K. Arjun Rao, director of the heritage department.

The menhirs are also believed to have been used to understand weather patterns and time in ancient periods. The department plans to conduct DNA testing on any human remains found to trace the ancestry of those buried at the site. With NGRI’s support, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) mapping will be undertaken to identify subsurface remains.

Locally known as Niluvurallu, the alignment consists of stone blocks ranging from 14 to 16 feet in height and 6 to 11 feet in girth. In some locations, only a single menhir is visible, but at Mudumal several stand in alignment, suggesting that ancient groups may have lived along the Krishna riverbank where iron ore was plentiful.

“The uniqueness of the Mudumal Menhirs must be clearly explained because similar structures exist across the world. Only then can this site secure the UNESCO tag,” said excavation director P. Nagaraju.