The Mystery of the 11,500-Year-Old Shigir Idol | Ancient Architects

Known as the world’s oldest wooden statue, the Shigar Idol is thought to be 11,500 years old, meaning it was made during the Mesolithic period, shortly after the end of the last Ice Age. It was discovered by gold miners back in 1890 inside the peat bog of Shigir, on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals, approximately 62 miles away from Yekaterinburg in Russia. When it was first radiocarbon dated in the 1990s, its age was 9,500 years but later German analysis pushed back this date by a further 2,000 years.