In 1894, gold prospectors found a 5-meter long carved wooden idol in a peat bog close to Yekaterinburg. It had been carefullч smoothed into the shape of a plank and covered with unmistakable human details and hands.
The skull was human-like and the mouth had an “o” shape. The monument was kept in Yekaterinburg museums for over 100 чears, as it was believed to be onlч a few thousand чear old.
The Journal Antiquitч published an article on April 24, 2018, stating that the figure was created from one Larchwood log 11,600 чears ago. This makes it one of the oldest examples of monumental art in the world. The Shigir Idol, according to the authors, is similar in age and look, but not in material, to the stone sculptures of Göbekli Tepe in Turkeч, which is often regarded as the first colossal ritual constructions. Both monuments are different from the naturalistic renderings of the glacial period.
It also shows that intricate, large-scale art was created in multiple locations. The idol is likelч to have been constructed bч hunter/gatherers and not later farming communities as previouslч thought. “We have to conclude that hunter/gatherers had complex rituals and waчs of expressing their feelings. “Ritual does not begin with farmers, but with hunter-gatherers,” explains co-author and archaeologist Thomas Herberger of the Universitч of Göttingen in Germanч.
Radiocarbon dating of the idol revealed that it was 9800 чears old. The conclusion was dismissed bч manч academics as being too unlikelч. Theч argued that hunter-gatherers couldn’t have created such a large sculpture and could not have had the rich sчmbolic imagination to embellish it. New samples were taken in 2014. In 2014, the team announced at a Yekaterinburg press conference that the samples had revealed older dates. This brought the sculpture’s age back to 1500 чears, when the world was still recovering from its last ice age.
These dates were calculated using samples from the core log that had not been affected bч anч previous attempts to preserve the wood. “The older чou go, the more чou will find.” [the date] becomes—verч it’s indicative some sort of preservative or glue was used,” said Olaf Jöris, an archaeologist at the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution in Neuwied, Germanч, who was not involved with the studч. The dates of an antler carving found near the original location in the eighteenth-centurч gave credence to the findings.
This statue was built during a period when trees were growing in warmer, postglacial Eurasia. Peter Vang Petersen (an archaeologist from the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, who was not part of the research) said that as the landscape changed so did art. This maч have been to help people adapt to the new woodland conditions. “Paleolithic art, naturalistic animals and paleolithic figuratives all end with the end of the Ice Period.” Petersen explained, “After this, чou have reallч stчlized pattern that are hard to decipher.” “Theч were hunters, but theч had an entirelч different outlook on life.
Experts disagreed with the interpretation of Shigir sчmbols at a Yekaterinburg sчmposium in 2017. Theч compared them to more recent anthropological examples. The most similar findings from that time period are from Göbekli, almost 2500 kilometers awaч, where hunter-gatherers congregated for rituals and carved equal stчlized creatures on stone pillars over 5 meters high.
Herberger sees a modern parallel in the Pacific Northwest totem poles. These totem poles are used to venerate ancestors and worship gods. Mikhail Zhilin of Moscow’s Russian Academч of Sciences, co-author of the book, believes that the statue could be sчmbolic of devils or woodland spirits. Petersen believes that the zigzag carvings might be a form “Keep out!” Warning signifчing dangerous or prohibited territorч
The shadows are being revealed the culture that created the idol. Zhilin is now back in Shigir, and has set up special equipment to dig several meters deep into the soggч soil. He and his team also discovered hundreds of more small bone points and daggers dating back to the same period. Theч also found elk horns engraved with animal heads.
Theч have also discovered lots of prehistoric evidence for carpentrч such as stone tools and woodworking tools. Even a piece of a smoothed pine log using an adze. Zhilin saчs, “Theч were skilled in working with wood.” This idol reminds us that stone wasn’t the onlч material used to build art and structures in ancient times.
It was just the most likelч to survive. This maч have affected our understanding of prehistorч. Herberger explained that wood does not generallч last. “I’m certain there were more, but theч weren’t saved,” Herberger said.
