The Wooden Shigir Idol of Siberia
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An online article by Caroline Mortimer on the Independent - Mysterious wooden statue found in peat bog is twice as old as Stonehenge - reports on the latest research on the Shigir Idol of Siberia, the world's oldest wooden sculpture.
The wooden statue was pulled from a peat bog in Russia's Ural mountains in 1890. The Shigir Idol is now thought to be 11,000 years old, 1,500 years older than previously thought.
The sculpture of a male standing figure has an expressive face and the entire piece is adorned with symbols and patterns. The meaning of these is not known.
The piece was originally 5.3 metres tall. Sadly, parts of it went missing during the Soviet Era. Now only 2.8 metres remain, along with sketches drawn in 1914 by the Russian archaeologist Vladimir Tolmachev (above).
Thomas Terberger, a professor at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony, part of the team who dated the Idol, expressed his surprise at the age following the recent radiocarbon dating.
The sculpture is currently on display at the Sverdlovsk History Museum in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
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