New tests reveal Shigir Idol is 11,000 years old

The mysterious wooden statue Shigir Idol has been found to be 11,000 years old, or 1,500 years older than previously believed, according to new tests, making it the oldest known wooden sculpture in the world, reports The Huffington Post quoting The Siberian Times.
The idol is more than twice as old as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, three times older than the ancient city of Babylon, and five times as old as Al Khazneh, the most famous of the ruins in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.
Radiocarbon dating conducted in 1997 gave the statue an age of 9,500 years old, but the results were controversial. To confirm the statue's age, seven "minuscule" samples of wood were sent to Germany for analysis by accelerated mass spectrometry, the Siberian Times reported.
The new analysis found the sculpture to be 11,000 years old, and made from a larch that was 157 years old when it was felled by stone tools.
"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 website quoted the museum as saying.
The idol was found in the late 19th century in a bog in the Urals in western Siberia. Conditions in the bog preserved the wood so well that not only is the idol's carved face still very much visible, but a series of lines, squiggles and other marks that run along its nine-foot length can also be seen.
Originally, the idol was even taller -- perhaps more than 17 feet high -- but some pieces have been lost over the years.  Archaeologist Vladimir Tolmachev’s sketches, made over a century ago, depicted a more complete version of the idol. Besides the face at the top, several other faces are visible at various points along the statue.
There are a number of theories about what the faces or the lines and markings signify, however, it is still not clear.
“This is a masterpiece, carrying gigantic emotional value and force, a unique sculpture; there is nothing else in the world like this," Professor Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archaeology told the Siberian Times last year.

New tests reveal Shigir Idol is 11,000 years old

The mysterious wooden statue Shigir Idol has been found to be 11,000 years old, or 1,500 years older than previously believed, according to new tests, making it the oldest known wooden sculpture in the world, reports The Huffington Post quoting The Siberian Times. The idol is more than twice as old as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, three times older than the ancient city of Babylon, and five times as old as Al Khazneh, the most famous of the ruins in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Radiocarbon dating conducted in 1997 gave the statue an age of 9,500 years old, but the results were controversial. To confirm the statues age, seven minuscule samples of wood were sent to Germany for analysis by accelerated mass spectrometry, the Siberian Times reported. The new analysis found the sculpture to be 11,000 years old, and made from a larch that was 157 years old when it was felled by stone tools. 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 website quoted the museum as saying. The idol was found in the late 19th century in a bog in the Urals in western Siberia. Conditions in the bog preserved the wood so well that not only is the idols carved face still very much visible, but a series of lines, squiggles and other marks that run along its nine-foot length can also be seen. Originally, the idol was even taller -- perhaps more than 17 feet high -- but some pieces have been lost over the years. Archaeologist Vladimir Tolmachevs sketches, made over a century ago, depicted a more complete version of the idol. Besides the face at the top, several other faces are visible at various points along the statue. There are a number of theories about what the faces or the lines and markings signify, however, it is still not clear. This is a masterpiece, carrying gigantic emotional value and force, a unique sculpture; there is nothing else in the world like this, Professor Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology told the Siberian Times last year.