In the capital of Belarus - Minsk, on Karl Marx Street, the National Museum of History and Culture of Belarus is located - the largest of all museums in terms of the number of exhibits presented in it. Among these exhibits there is one that is directly related to the times of paganism on the territory of modern Belarus - it is called the Shklov idol.
The Shklov idol is a sculpture, a little over a meter high and weighing about 250 kilograms, depicting a pagan deity. The sculpture was discovered in the 70s of the last century by boys from the nearby village of Stary Shklov. They found a pagan idol lying on the banks of the heavily shallowed Serebryanka river in the Kukushkin ditch. The boys told the adults about their find, and they dug up the entire sculpture and called it a "boob."
Archaeologists learned about the find and decided to transport the Shklov idol to the capital of the country. But during transportation in the back of the truck that transported it, the oldest exhibit was damaged - the idol's face was partially shaved, the entire sculpture was also decently worn.
The Shklov idol is an image of the upper part of male figures, hewn in the form of a cylindrical pillar. The lower part of the pillar is made in the form of a pedestal. The material from which the idol was made is sandstone. On the face of the idol, you can clearly see some individual features - eyes, possibly closed, mouth and even a mustache. Researchers are also sure that the figure of the pagan deity has a phallic shape. This means that she could symbolize male fertility and the beginning of a new period.
After that, as the exhibit was delivered to Minsk, they began to carefully examine it. But some difficulties arose with this. The fact is that the find lacked those necessary signs by which one could confidently draw conclusions about its origin. Therefore, scientists did not manage to find out - in what period of time the Shklov idol was made, and who was the people who worshiped him.
Some researchers date the find to the 12th - 13th century, others to the 10th, and still others to the 6th. But none of these hypotheses are scientifically proven. Most scientists believe that the idol was abandoned by a Slavic settlement - more than one and a half thousand years ago, a Slavic tribe came to the territory of modern Old Shklov in the valley of the Serebryanka River. The center of his settlement was on a high mountain - now it is called Staroshklovskoe settlement. When excavations were carried out in these places, it turned out that the settlement was surrounded by a palisade. However, some archaeologists also note the similarity of the Belarusian idol with similar idols found in Riga, as well as in the Smolensk region.
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Scientists have not yet been able to figure out what kind of deity the Shklov idol personifies. There is a version that the idol belonged to the chthonic world of deceased ancestors - such an assumption was made because of the closed eyes. But are they really closed? It turns out that there are still more questions than answers. But it is all the more interesting to see the ancient find with your own eyes - you can try to solve all its secrets and riddles yourself.