Haunting Russian Statue Discovered to be 11,000-Years-Old

The Big Shigir Idol – Mysterious Statue

For thousands of years before the ancient Egyptians mined the first block of granite for the pyramids, a huge wooden totem of 17.5 feet tall had fallen into a peat marshland in the western fringes of Siberia, Russia. It remained there, preserved like a natural time capsule till it was eventually discovered in 1894.

Known as the Big Shigir Idol, this mysterious statue had all researchers confused for decades owing to the coded hieroglyphic on its surface. Some have assumed that it could contain stories on the creation of the world by ancient person, while others are of the belief that it could be nothing more than decoration, though the fact remains that it is a very old piece of art.

A first attempt to date the idol had been done 107 years after its discovery in 1890. An initial analysis utilising radiocarbon dating done in 1997, placed the Shigir Idol’s age to be around 9,500 years, leading to dispute in the scientific community.According to a source, to overcome doubts and to make the results known and accepted, they made a decision to use the most modern technologies to date the idol again.

Important Data For International Scientific Community

Recent analysis conducted in Mannheim, Germany, one of the world’s most advanced laboratories was carried out,and using seven small wooden samples from the Idol placed inside an accelerated mass spectrometer indicated it to be 11,000 years old which is more than twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids or Stonehenge.

A professor at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony, Thomas Terberger had commented at a press conference recently that `this is extremely important data for the international scientific community and it is important for understanding the development of civilization and the art of Eurasia and humanity as a whole’.

He further added that in those times, 11,000 years ago, the hunters, fishermen and gatherers of the Urals were not developed than the farmers of the Middle East. By showing how powerful the recent dating technology has become, researchers have revealed that the idol was made from a newly cut larch tree which could have been at least 157 years.

Masterpiece – Gigantic Emotional Value/Force

The clear cuts on the tree trunk leaves no room for doubt that the idol had been made from a freshly cut tree with the use of stone tools. The ancient monuments standing 9 ft. in height though originally was 17 ft. tall is as high as a two storey house. During the Soviet era, two metres of the ancient artefact were missing though the drawings were done of it by pre-revolutionary archaeologist Vladimir Tolmachev.

Lead researcher of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology, Professor Mikhail Zhilin, had commented of his feeling of awe while studying the idol. He stated that this was a masterpiece, carrying gigantic emotional value and force.

It is a unique sculpture and there is nothing else like it in the world. It is very alive as well as complicated at the same time and the ornament is enclosed with nothing but encrypted information. People seemed to be passing on knowledge with the help of the idol. As the messages tend to remain a mystery, it was evident that the figure’s creators lived in great harmony with the world, had innovative intellectual development as well as complicated spiritual world.