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Haunting Russian statue discovered to be 11,000-years-old
Topic Started: Aug 31 2015, 06:09 PM (219 Views)
Catface
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Spooky

Thousands of years before the ancient Egyptians quarried even the first block of granite for the great pyramids, a massive wooden totem nearly 17.5 feet tall fell into a peat bog in the western fringes of Siberia, Russia. There it lay, preserved in a kind of natural time capsule, until it was discovered in 1894.

Called the Big Shigir Idol, the mysterious statue has baffled researchers for decades due to the coded hieroglyphics covering its surface. While some have surmised that it may contain stories about the creation of the world by ancient man, others believe it to be nothing more than decoration. One thing we do know for sure: This thing is old — really, really, old.

Back in 1997, an initial analysis using radiocarbon dating placed the Shigir Idol's age at roughly 9,500 years. A new analysis this year using seven small wooden samples from the Idol placed inside an accelerated mass spectrometer determined it to be 11,000 years old. That's more than twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids or Stonehenge.

Full article




Really fascinating stuff. I wonder if they will ever be able to decipher the writing on it?
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Wow, that is old. I can't imagine the people who created this left much behind, so I'm not getting my hopes up about a translation, but I'll certainly be interested if there is one.

Anyway, does this mean future Civilization games will have to begin from 9,000BC instead of 4,000BC :P ?
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

interesting it could have been a very advanced civilization that up and vanished like the myans perhaps and this is really all thats left of them now.
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Well, the Mayans never actually vanished (notwithstanding the fact that 21st December 2012 has come and gone :P ). There are about seven million of them alive today; some of them have become Hispanicized, but others remain culturally distinct and continue to speak their own language.

Still, it makes me wonder what happened to whoever produced this. I suppose it could have been a famine or a disease or something like that. However, I don't expect they were conquered, otherwise I expect their conquerors would have left behind more evidence.
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

well it IS siberia, chances are if it was a hostile take-over much would be burned away and buried deep in the ground by now and stuck in the perma-frost that is the norm for the landscape of the area.
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Mozzie
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Socially Confused

Very interesting statue, hopefully they will find something that will give them a clue to the writings
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

well with pieces missing it may be difficult to truly discern if it's patterns or a cryptic language.
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