This tiny clay figurine in the shape of a man is less than 4 cm in length. Discovered in 1889 in the city of Nampa, Idaho, and since then this artifact has been called the "Doll from Nampa".
That year, a group of workers dug wells, trying to find groundwater, and in one of such wells from a depth of 90 meters, a pump, along with tiny clay balls, pulled out this tiny doll.
In appearance, it was definitely an object made by human hands, and not a game of nature, but at such a depth, even the bones of fossil ancestors of people are not often found. Experts date this layer with ancient clay at about 2 million years!
And the figurine itself and the clay balls immediately asked riddles that have not been solved until now. Was it a fake? Doubtful. Could the figurine and the balls have fallen into the hole after they have drilled it? It is unlikely that late inspection showed that it was very difficult for a foreign object to get into the well. But if she was really pulled from this depth, how did she end up there?
When the figurine was shown to a specialist in antiquities, he immediately drew attention to the red spots of iron oxide, which were even in the most inaccessible places of the pupa. Thus, she apparently and truly lay at a depth for many years. The same spots were found on the balls and were exactly identical.
According to one version, this figurine was created during the Upper Paleolithic (40-12 thousand years ago), when ancient people created their famous curvy "Venus". And in an older layer, she supposedly could penetrate later through a crack.
However, the figurine from Nampa does not resemble the Paleolithic "Venus" at all. The “Venus” were primarily distinguished by wide hips and large breasts, the same figure is made much more simply, primitively, and there are no hints of wide hips, and the chest is only barely indicated. The only similarity is that the figurine also depicts a woman.
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Typical paleolithic * venus * and doll from Nampa.
Could this figure really have been made 2 million years ago? Who lived on earth in those days when there were still no Cro-Magnons, or even Neanderthals? About 2.3 million years ago, a Homo sapiens appeared on Earth, the pinnacle of his achievements were stone choppers, stone scrapers and other primitive stone tools.
But in appearance, he, like all Australopithecines, looked more like a "slender" chimpanzee, while the parameters of the chrysalis are human. And Australopithecus did not have a talent for creativity, even the walls of the caves were not painted. Moreover, the hands of the modern type, more adapted to fine motor skills, appeared in our ancestors much later, about 1.8 million years ago.
And of course, 2 million years ago, there were no human ancestors on the territory of the American continent, human ancestors had not even left Africa at that time.
The chrysalis from Nampa has been the subject of controversy between researchers for many years, but gradually it was forgotten and it is not even known where it is now. The last information about her was in 1979, when the pupa was studied by Professor Albert Wright of Oberlin College.
“This is not the result of the work of a small child, but was done by a skilled person. Although the object has suffered greatly from time to time, the appearance of the doll can still be seen. She has a convex head with barely outlined eyes and mouth, broad shoulders, thick arms and legs, one leg is broken off. There are also some geometric details on the body, probably an attempt to depict clothing,”Wright wrote.