11,000-Year-Old Shigir Idol Dated Twice as Old as the Pyramids
German researchers have discovered that a well-preserved, totem-like artifact, known as the Shigir Idol, is nearly 11,000 years old making it more than twice as old as the Egyptian Pyramids. The idol bears similar carvings to those found at the ancient temple ruins of Göbekli Tepe.
The team published its findings in the Cambridge University’s archeological publication Antiquity, calling it the oldest piece of monumental art. Radiocarbon dating originally placed the idol at roughly 9,000 years, though a more accurate technique, known as accelerator mass spectrometry dating, found its true age to be nearly 2,000 years older.
The 16-ft. tall, wooden statue was originally discovered by miners in a bog in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia in the late-1800s. It was preserved by anti-microbial properties of the peat it was found buried in, allowing it to survive since the end of the last ice age, during the Holocene era.
Decorated with human faces and zig-zagged carvings, the idol appears to be held together by a glue-like substance. Mikhail Zhilin, an archeologist involved with the study, said the totem may have been carved by hunter-gatherers to represent local forest spirits or demons.
via salon.com
“They knew how to work wood perfectly,” Zhilin said.
Some experts believe the carvings in the statue may be hieroglyphs containing encrypted information describing the world at the time. A total of eight faces have been identified in addition to the idol’s myriad notches and etchings.
via siberiantimes.com
Researchers, including Graham Hancock, stated that the new dating of the idol may fit in with the Younger Dryas hypothesis, positing that a comet or large meteor struck the Earth around 12,900 years ago, creating a 1,200-year mini ice age.
Hancock says he believes this impact wiped out evidence of older, more advanced civilizations that may have existed then, giving us amnesia of an advanced ancestor.
The 11,000-year dating of the Shigir Idol also coincides with the age of Gobekli Tepe, the prehistoric temple ruins in southern Turkey that pushed back archeologists’ commonly held timeline of human civilization. The two parallel each other in that they prove our human ancestors at the time were capable of metaphysical and spiritual thought, contradicting mainstream theories that this sort of cognition didn’t occur until much later.
Thomas Terberger, a professor involved in the study, said, “We can say that in those times, 11,000 years ago, the hunters, fishermen and gatherers of the Urals were no less developed than the farmers of the Middle East.”
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The London Hammer: Is It An Out of Place Artifact?
What could be so unusual or controversial about the discovery of an iron hammer encased in ancient rock? After all, archaeologists have discovered historical artifacts for as long as humans have been searching for their ancient roots. But what happens when an object defies historical study and appears to exist as a kind of time traveler in the mysterious realms between worlds? For what is known as the “London Hammer,” the world has been wrangling with a seemingly ordinary household tool steeped in mystery, archaeological wonder, and with many unanswered questions.
Alleged to date back more than 400 million years, the London Hammer, or as it is also called the London Artifact, can be looked at as a study of how the modern and ancient worlds can connect and collide. How else can we explain that an obviously human-made instrument linked to the late 1800s that never rusted despite the wood transforming into coal?
How could the London Hammer withstand typical aging impacts like oxidation, and what explanations exist for its discovery in a rock formation predating human existence? Perhaps it’s best to begin with its claimed discovery location – the small town of London, Texas.
London Hammer — From Texas to the World Stage
For Max and Emma Hahn, it was a summer day like many others. In 1936, the Texas couple took a hike along Red Creek near London, Texas, a tiny community located in the center of the Lone Star State. But the hike turned out to be like no other the Hahns had ever experienced. Not because of the weather or the beauty of the landscape but because they discovered a strange piece of wood encased in what seemed to be an unusual formation of rock.
