2024 Author: Adelina Croftoon | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 02:08
The Shigir idol, a tall, processed tree trunk, crowned with a face and decorated with various patterns, amazed by its antiquity back in the 1990s, when dating showed over 9 thousand years. New research has increased this figure to over 12,000 years
So-called Shigir idol was found in 1890 in Russia, in the Shigir peat bog, which is not far from Kirovgrad.
Its surface was covered with zigzag patterns and carved faces of people, and it was immediately clear from its appearance that it was very ancient, but its age could only be calculated in the 1990s, when radiocarbon dating became common.
Then the age of the Shigir idol was estimated at 9,750 years, and the analysis of 2018 showed the date of 11,600 years. But recently, a new study was carried out, which showed that in fact, the Shigir idol is about 12,100 years old. That is, it is more than twice as old as Stonehenge, whose age is estimated at 5 thousand years.
After the first dating, the Shigir idol was recognized as the oldest wooden sculpture in the world.
A new study of the Shigir idol was carried out by employees of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a group from the University of Göttingen (Germany). They also found out that the tree (larch) from which the idol was created was 159 years old at the time of the felling.
When discovered, the idol was a pile of scattered fragments, so the scientists themselves had to put together a single whole from it. As a result, we got a structure with a height of 2.80 meters. It is assumed that in its original form, the Shigir idol was much larger and reached over 5 meters.
At one time, the Shigir idol shocked many scientists and continues to amaze to this day. It was assumed that the people who lived in the era when it was created were much more primitive to carve such complex ornaments and images from wood.
There have been many attempts to decipher the meaning of the patterns on the idol; in general, the researchers agree that most likely the patterns depict something from mythology, perhaps the story of the creation of heaven and earth.
According to archaeologists, many peat bogs are scattered throughout the Urals, in which many more ancient artifacts are probably stored. However, it is very expensive and time-consuming to go there for excavations.
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