© Yekaterinburg History MuseumBig Shigir Idol.
The Mail Online reports that;
"Research was conducted in Mannheim, Germany, at one of the world's most advanced laboratories using Accelerated Mass Spectrometry, on seven minuscule wooden samples."
"The results were astonishing, as samples from inside parts of the idol showed its age as 11,000 calendar years, to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch."
Built at the end of the last Ice Age, it is some 5,000 years older than the pyramids and 6,500 years older than Stonehenge.
The Siberian Times quoted a spokesperson for the Sverdlovsk Regional History Museum, where it is on display, who said.
"This confirms that hunters and fishermen from Urals created works of art as developed and as monumental as ancient farmers of the Middle East".
The statute has been perfectly preserved by the peat bog and is an impressive piece of art and workmanship. It stands 9ft (2.8 metres) in height, but it was originally 17ft (5.3 metres) tall, until parts of it were lost in Russia's recent political turmoil.
© Siberian TimesThe oldest wooden statue in the world.
Professor Mikhail Zhilin, leading researcher of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archaeology, said;
"The men - or man - who created the Idol lived in total harmony with the world, had advanced intellectual development, and a complicated spiritual world."
The website Ancient Origins says that the idol's face has "high cheekbones and straight nose may reflect what the creators looked like at the time."
Until now, the earliest forms of writing have conventionally been attributed to the Sumerians and Egyptians starting between 3400 - 3200 BC, although the Dispilio tablet found in 2013 in Northern Greece has been estimated to be 5,000 years old.
Experts have been unable to translate the writing on the Shigir Idol, describing it as a sort of secret code, which they believe carries information on the "creation of the world".
© Siberian TimesThe Idol is more than 6,000 years older than the UK's Stonehenge.
The Siberian Times says "the marks could have multiple meanings for the ancient statue-makers who gave the Idol seven faces, only one of which is three-dimensional."
© Siberian TimesThis is a masterpiece, carrying gigantic emotional value and force, a unique sculpture.
"Images on the front and back planes of the Idol, possibly indicate that they belong to different worlds. If there are depicted myths about the origin of humans and the world, the vertical arrangement of the images may reflect the sequence of events." explained the Professor.
A problem for the translators is the polysemy symbolism of the hieroglyphics, which means they may have multiple related meanings.
Professor Zhilin said the messages remain "an utter mystery to modern man",
"This is a masterpiece, carrying gigantic emotional value and force," he said.
"It is a unique sculpture, there is nothing else in the world like this."
They had no written language, there language was a pictorial language, the poles illustrate there lineage which is matrilineal, and there clan which is either Raven or Eagle, that is a very simple explanation, many stories and myths/legends are depicted on the poles as well events as occurring in the families of the villages where they lived.
What struck me is could this be an ancient representation of a totem pole. That depicts some event in prehistory. The lines do look like depictions of DNA and the images of faces is very evocative.
For more information on the poles and the ancient Haida culture This is a link to the Canadian Museum of civilization on the Haida for anyone interested
[Link]
Also from the site an interesting myth/legend which struck me as a possible event regarding the melting of the ice sheets.
The memory of this drastic fluctuation of sea levels is preserved in the widespread flood myths of people along the Northwest Coast. Scores of these stories have been recorded. In 1892, James Deans, a Hudson's Bay Company trader, was told a legend that was very specific about glacial events at the Honna River on Haida Gwaii:
This is the story of the long long ago told amongst our people, the Hidery, that at Quilh-ca, about three miles west from the village of Illth-cah-geetla, or Skidegate's town, lived a boy whose name was Scannah-gan-nuncus . . .
. . . One day, making a further venture than usual, he sailed up the Hunnah, a mountain stream emptying its waters into Skidegate channel, four or five miles west from the place where he lived.
Tradition says that this river in those days was three times larger than it was nowadays. At present there is seldom water enough to float a canoe, unless at high water. It is also related that the waters of the sea stood higher on the land than is now the case. Of the rise of the land, evidence is everywhere to be seen; old landmarks show thirty feet.
After pulling up stream, he became tired; so, in order to rest, he pulled ashore and lay down. In those days at the place where he went ashore were large boulders in the bed of the stream, while on both sides of the river were many trees. While resting by the river, he heard a dreadful noise up stream, coming towards him. Looking to see what it was, he was surprised to behold all the stones in the river coming toward him. The movement of the stones frightened him so much that he jumped to his feet and ran into the timber. Here he found he had made a mistake, because all the trees were cracking and groaning; all seemed to say to him, "Go back, go back at once to the river, and run as fast as you can." This he lost no time doing. When again at the river, led by his curiosity, he went to see what was crushing the stones and breaking the trees. On reaching them, he found that a large body of ice was coming down, pushing everything before it. Seeing this, he got into his canoe and fled toward home.
Another interesting thing, It is also reported that the body of water between Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii, Hectate Strait was once a fertile valley.
What also struck me after this visit is we have no real culture or myths and legends to pass on to future generations, no stories of community, no stories of how to care for ourselves, provide for our families to create a symbiotic relationships with the earth and the animals that provide us with nutrition and our lives. In essence there is no respect for our surroundings, the earth we live on and the people we live with, as the ancient cultures have said to each generation, take only what you need, leave some for future generations.
What we are leaving out generations of the future is a culture of war, narcissism, selfishness and greed. Some legacy!