Here, the archeologists have discovered “a depiction of a star constellation”, perhaps only one of its kind discovered in a megalithic structure in India. The megalithic site itself is just one of several with 80 large menhirs (3.5-4m) and about 2,000 alignment stones, (30-60cm), spread over an area of 80 acres. Such a large concentration and arrangement of megalithic structures in such a small area is in itself a rarity. The central part of the entire site is the most densely populated.

The findings related to astronomy are especially fascinating. There is a cup-mark depiction of Ursa Major (Saptarishi) of the northern skies. Another feature is the arrangement of 30 cup-marks that seems to imitate the stellar configuration of the night skies. Also discovered is an imaginary line drawn from the upper two stars (Kratu and Pulaha) in megalithic imitation of Saptarishi pointed to the Pole Star (Dhruva). The findings await further confirmation, though the initial scholarly responses appear positive.

Meanwhile, almost 7,800km away in Australia, an astronomer at Monash University, Duane Hamacher, who is studying the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement – an aboriginal sacred site – is coming to a conclusion similar to that of Indian astronomers. These stone arrangements were made in the past for the sake of astronomical observations.

The stone arrangement is made up of about a hundred basalt stones. Arranged like an incomplete egg, the key stones in the arrangement are aligned to mark the solstice and equinox sunsets. Hamacher’s in-depth and ongoing study of aboriginal astronomy and other knowledge systems has made him alert to the biases in academia and media with respect to his findings. “Some academics have referred to this stone arrangement here as Australia's version of the Stonehenge,” he points out; however, he says, “The question we might have to ask is, is Stonehenge Britain's version of Wurdi Youang? Because this could be much, much older.”

The archeo-astronomical discovery has other ramifications too. It challenges the colonial myth, which is still the dominant historical narrative, that the aborigines were nomads. The stones are estimated by geologists to be almost 11,000 BP. If such structures were created by people with knowledge of astronomy, they were more sedentary than they were nomads, and that might offer a clue to the origin of agriculture as well.

Science writer Ray Norris writes about “the remarkable similarity between Aboriginal stories about stars and those of the Ancient Greeks” in his recent article for the New Scientist ('Written in the Stars'). The Greek and Hindu mythological parallels have already been well-established. So, perhaps, the proposal of British geneticist and author Stephen Oppenheimer of a common origin for mythologies in Southeast Asian and Oceanic regions needs a serious relook.