archeologia: Shigir Idol

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The Shigir Sculpture, or Shigir Idol (Russian: Шигирский идол), is the oldest known wooden sculpture. It is estimated to have been carved c. 11,500 years ago, or during the early Holocene period, and is twice as old as Egypt's Great Pyramid. The wood it was carved from is approximately 12,000 years old. It was discovered in 1890 in a Russian peat bog, and is displayed in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Evidence: 50 • authority: 71

Recently, the team in Germany expressed interest it taking a closer look at the idol, which is normally housed in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum, in Russia. Arrangements were made for the idol to be shipped to Germany, where it was studied, along with other original material found in the peat bog. Using accelerator mass spectrometry , the team found the true age of the idol to be approximately 11,500 years old, placing its creation at around the time of the end of the Ice Age. That age also makes it the oldest known wood monumental sculpture ever found and more than twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids. The researchers report that they also found another face carved into the wood , bringing the total to eight. Their findings suggest that researchers looking to better understand very early human behavior perhaps need to widen their search beyond the Fertile Crescent. The Shigir Idol was discovered in an ancient peat bog by miners in Russia back in 1890. Early analysis showed that it was made entirely of larch wood and was constructed from several chunks. It remained preserved for thousands of years because of antimicrobial properties found in the peat. The idol was also covered extensively with markings, some of which depicted tiny human faces. To this day, no one knows what most of the markings depict. It was also noted that some of the original pieces of the idol had been lost—it is believed that it originally stood approximately five meters tall. In 1997, a team in Russia used radiocarbon dating to estimate the age of the icon and found it to be approximately 9,500 years old. Wooden Shigir idol found to be over twice as old as Egyptian pyramids

Evidence: 38 • authority: 88

To the question of definition of the age of the Big Shigir idol. The article is devoted to problems of dating of the monumental wooden sculpture accidentally found in 1980 during gold mining at the Shigir peat bog in the Trans-Urals. In 1997 mesolithic age of wood of the sculpture was established with the help of conventional method in radiocarbon laboratories of the Institute for the History of Material Culture (St. Petersburg) and of the Geological Institute (Moscow). In 2014 series of radiocarbon dates were obtained with the help of AMS method in Claus Chir laboratory (Manheim, Germany) which enabled dating of the sculpture to the Early Mesolithic. Results of dendrological analysis carri…

Evidence: 22 • authority: 80

On the Date of the Great Shigir Idol

Evidence: 22 • authority: 80

The Shigir idol in the context of early art in Eurasia

Evidence: 22 • authority: 80

The Shigir idol in the context of early art in Eurasia

Evidence: 22 • authority: 80

A new subject in the study of the Great Shigir Idol

Evidence: 0 • authority: 71

Evidence: 0 • authority: 71