The Shigir Idol

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c. 9500 BC · Shigir peat bog, Middle Urals · Eastern Europe & Russia · Culture

The world's oldest wooden sculpture, from the Urals

Gold prospectors found the carved larch figure, covered with faces and patterns, in a peat bog in 1890. Radiocarbon dating in 2018 put it at about 11,500 years old, more than twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids and contemporary with Göbekli Tepe. It once stood over 5 metres tall and is now kept in Yekaterinburg.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · Prehistory

Did you know

The Shigir Idol from the Urals was carved about 11,500 years ago. When the Great Pyramid was built, it was already almost 7,000 years old, older than the pyramid is today.

Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)