Researchers from all over the world gathered in Yekaterinburg to discuss the Big Shigir Idol.
THE AGE OF THE IDOL WAS DETERMINED BY THE RINGS ON THE WOOD
In the Urals, the Big Shigir Idol is being discussed again. On Tuesday, June 13, scientists from different countries gathered in Yekaterinburg to discuss the results of the study of the oldest wooden sculpture in the world, which, recall, is 11 thousand years old.
“We have 18 foreign participants from Germany, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Hungary and Poland,” said the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore.
Recall that this sculpture was discovered more than 100 years ago by the workers of the gold mine near Kirovgrad. The idol lay in the peat at a depth of four meters. For almost the entire twentieth century, employees of the local museum of local lore showed it, without even realizing that they were holding a wooden sculpture that is older than the Egyptian pyramids. Only 20 years ago, Russian scientists established that it is about 9.5 thousand years old. And two years ago, German scientists conducted their own examination and found that the idol is at least 11 thousand years old.
“To determine this, we used a combination of two methods,” said Karl-Uwe Heussner, a representative of the Eurasian Department of the German Archaeological Institute, specializing in the dating of wooden products. - Every year the tree grows in a ring. We take small pieces of the growth ring and carry out radiocarbon analysis on them. When we determine the radiocarbon dates of individual rings, we know how far apart they are, and we can refine the dates obtained.
Now the idol is on display at the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore
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Note that European scientists would not have been able to conduct such a study if in 2015 they had not been allowed to “pinch off” several pieces of wood from the idol. This, we recall, caused a scandal - the Investigative Committee of Russia even opened a criminal case on the fact of damage to the sculpture. Both foreign scientists and the regional ministry of culture now declare that the conflict has long been settled, "all questions have been removed." However, the question of whether it will be necessary to pluck off a piece of wood from the idol again for further research remains open.
- For today, to clarify the age of the idol, new samples are not needed, - said Karl-Uwe Heussner. - But if you use other isotopic methods … In the future, it is possible to clarify the age by direct dendrochronology, but this requires more research work. It will be necessary to take much more samples, new excavations are needed.
The Big Shigir idol was found in 1890 at the Second Kuryinsk mine of the Shigir peat bog, 80 km north-west of Yekaterinburg. Photo: ALEXEY BULATOV / kp.ru
ANCIENT PEOPLE USED THE LOWER JAWS OF A BEAVER AS A TOOL
Another clarification made by the researchers at the conference concerns how exactly the Great Shigir idol was made 11 thousand years ago.
“Initially, the large larch was cut down, then it was split, after which the base and head were roughly processed using polished silicon tools,” said Mikhail Zhilin, a leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - The surface was sanded with a fine-grained abrasive, after which the ornament was cut out with chisels. There were at least three of them, and with different blade widths. Apparently, the face was processed last, because there were added to these chisels very interesting tools from the halves of the lower jaws of the beaver. The beaver itself is created to plan a tree. Now, if you sharpen the beaver's cutter, you will get a great tool, which is very convenient for choosing small holes, making concave surfaces.
After that, the Big Shigir idol was placed on a stone foundation. He did not dig into the ground. It stood like that for about 50 years, after which it collapsed into a reservoir and years later was buried in peat.
100 years ago, researchers assumed that the assembled Big Shigir Idol should look something like this. Photo: ALEXEY BULATOV / kp.ru
CREATED BY HUNTERS AND FISHERS
Now scientists consider the idol in the context of the art of the Stone Age of Northern Eurasia. According to the researchers, it proves that the civilization of hunters and fishermen who lived on the territory of the modern Urals 11 thousand years ago is in no way inferior to the civilization of farmers in its development.
“I completely agree that our hunters and fishermen were not more primitive than the ancient farmers,” said Thomas Terberger, curator of the Antiquities Department of the State Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony. “They invested a lot of energy and effort in creating such monumental sculptures as the Shigir idol. They have been developed.
We add that now the Big Shigir idol is on display at the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. It is contained in a glass sarcophagus, in a room where the temperature is optimal for its preservation.
Danil Svechkov