/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/12/21/12210658-7ca7-48b9-ae47-6288b4c78461/higi.jpg)
Posted on 03/26/2021 7:20:06 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Gold prospectors first discovered the so-called Shigir Idol at the bottom of a peat bog in Russia’s Ural mountain range in 1890. The unique object—a nine-foot-tall totem pole composed of ten wooden fragments carved with expressive faces, eyes and limbs and decorated with geometric patterns—represents the oldest known surviving work of wooden ritual art in the world.
More than a century after its discovery, archaeologists continue to uncover surprises about this astonishing artifact. As Thomas Terberger, a scholar of prehistory at Göttingen University in Germany, and his colleagues wrote in the journal Quaternary International in January, new research suggests the sculpture is 900 years older than previously thought.
Based on extensive analysis, Terberger’s team now estimates that the object was likely crafted about 12,500 years ago, at the end of the Last Ice Age. Its ancient creators carved the work from a single larch tree with 159 growth rings, the authors write in the study.
“The idol was carved during an era of great climate change, when early forests were spreading across a warmer late glacial to postglacial Eurasia,” Terberger tells Franz Lidz of the New York Times. “The landscape changed, and the art—figurative designs and naturalistic animals painted in caves and carved in rock—did, too, perhaps as a way to help people come to grips with the challenging environments they encountered.”
According to Sarah Cascone of Artnet News, the new findings indicate that the rare artwork predates Stonehenge, which was created around 5,000 years ago, by more than 7,000 years. It’s also twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids, which date to roughly 4,500 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
From a very interesting time in human history, imo.
puh leeze
Depicting a tall grey?
bookmark
B
“Based on extensive analysis” Really? What analysis? From the FBI? HaHaHa...
Heh. Climate change 12,000 years ago had a totally different meaning than today.
“Grog, I slept the whole winter using only one deer skin. If this keeps up we won’t have to hunt as much.”
Absolutely! It’s depicting an extraterrestrial.
I agree, fascinating.
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Bought the right age ...
Separated at birth?
The climate is always changing. When will the government school educated public ever get sick of big government's state religion?
Totem poles were how politicians marked territory, were a peacock display of virility, the original NBC media. Unlike the world's oldest profession, the second oldest needs to spin a narrative.
So everyone was bald, ear-less and thin as a board? Or just the model for this sculpture?
How old will it be tomorrow?
“The idol was carved during an era of great climate change, when early forests were spreading across a warmer late glacial to postglacial Eurasia,”
You see? You finally figure out how to harness fire to cook one brontosaurus burger and the whole world goes to hell...
Why, what’s tomorrow?
Saturday.
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