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Siberian Wooden Statue is 'Twice as Old as Stonehenge'

posted by janrinok on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the got-old-wood dept.

canopic jug writes:

The Independent has an article about a wooden statue found in peat bog which is 'twice as old as Stonehenge'. Named the Shigir Idol, it was found preserved in a peat bog back in 1890. New dating techniques suggest that it is around 11,000 years old, which would make it the oldest extant wooden sculpture.

Depicting a man with mysterious symbols inscribed on him - which scientists believe could be an ancient encrypted code - the statue is 1,500 years older than previously thought.

Scientists in Mannheim, Germany, used the most up-to-date carbon dating technology, called Accelerated Mass Spectrometry, to determine the statue's age.

Thomas Terberger, a professor at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony, part of the team who dated the Idol, told the Siberian Times: "The results exceeded our expectations.

"This is an extremely important date for the international scientific community. It is important for understanding the development of civilisation and the art of Eurasia and humanity as a whole.

"We can say that in those times, 11,000 years ago, the hunters, fishermen and gatherers of the Urals were no less developed than the farmers of the Middle East."

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:53PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:53PM (#675184)

    Haha yeah that part leaped out at me too. So at most it is like every other religious symbol out there? Who would have the faintest idea what a cross means if there was zero info left about christianity? If they found an ancient power pole they'd think we worshipped the power grid.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday May 03 2018, @06:43PM (1 child)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Thursday May 03 2018, @06:43PM (#675219)

    Reminds me of an article I read in a Reader's Digest as a kid. It was the description of a hotel room unearthed by some future archeologists with descriptions of everyday items and their deduced purposes.

    Holy crap, I can't believe I found it... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108831.Motel_of_the_Mysteries [goodreads.com]

    This is the very first thing I think of when I read anything relating to archeology.