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Criminal case opened on 'damaging world's oldest wooden statue'

By 0 and 0 and 0
29 July 2015

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'The examination of the idol was conducted without coordination with the relevant ministries and even the director of the Yekaterinburg History Museum Natalia Vetrova was not informed about the methods of the expertise.' Picture: Ekaterina Osintseva

The statue is twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids, and contains arguably the most ancient coded message on the planet, but it is now embroiled in a very modern Russian criminal case. 

The Investigative Committee in Sverdlovesk region has opened a criminal probe on causing damage to the famous Shigir Idol, estimate to be 9,500 years old. Since last year, the Culture Ministry in Moscow has been seeking legal redress over the way samples of the wooden statue were taken, and then exported by eminent German scientists for analysis. 

The latest move overturns an earlier 'illegal and groundless' decision not to take action under a clause in the criminal code prohibiting the destruction or damage of historical and cultural monuments.

A source in the Culture Ministry in Yekaterinburg said: 'The examination of the idol was conducted without coordination with the relevant ministries and even the director of the Yekaterinburg History Museum Natalia Vetrova was not informed about the methods of the expertise.' 

Shigir idol

In June 2014, German scientists Uwe Hoysner and Thomas Terberger arrived in Yekaterinburg and took the samples of Shigir idol to determine the statue's exact age. Picture: Alexander Mamaev/URA.ru

One senior official Tatiana Bondar said: 'We, like everyone else, saw the television programme [about taking the samples by German scientists]. We cannot say how many centimetres of the Idol were taken away. There are also questions about the fragments that were taken to Germany - they could not be sent abroad without a permission. Our management did not give any permit for export.' 

The hunt is now on for offenders who face a maximum penalty of three years in prison. 

In June 2014, German scientists Uwe Hoysner and Thomas Terberger arrived in Yekaterinburg and took the samples of Shigir idol to determine the statue's exact age.

It is unclear if they are under suspicion of unauthorised cutting of the statue,  but meanwhile their expected announcement on dating the Idol is now some months behind schedule for unknown reasons. There is speculation that Natalia Vetrova could become one of the accused on the basis that her museum had no authority to allow samples to be cut from the Idol.

This ancient example of human creativity was recovered in January 1890 near Kirovgrad. It is made of 159 year old larch, and covered with Mesolithic era symbols, which are not yet decoded. 

The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago


The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago


The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago


The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago

Made of 159 year old larch, it is covered with Mesolithic era symbols which are not yet decoded. Pictures: Ekaterina Osintseva

Originally some 2.8 metres in height, it appears to have seven faces. It was protected down the millennia by a four metre layer of peat bog  - as if in a time capsule - on the site of an open air gold mine.

'There is no such ancient sculpture in the whole of Europe. Studying this Idol is a dream come true', said Professor Terberger, of the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony. Hoysner, from Berlin Archaeological Institute said: 'The Idol is carved from larch, which, as we see by the annual rings, was at least 159 years old. 

'The samples we selected contain important information about the isotopes that correspond to the time when the tree grew.' They said they hoped to date the Idol to within five decades. 

Mikhail Zhilin, professor of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: 'This is a unique sculpture, like nowhere else in the world. The Shigir Idol is both very lively, and very complex. The ornaments, which cover the Idol, are the encrypted information of the knowledge which people passed on'.

Expert Svetlana Savchenko, chief keeper of Shigir Idol, believes that the structure's faces carry encoded information from ancient man in the Mesolithic era of the Stone Age concerning their understanding of 'the creation of the world'. She said it was 'obvious' that the symbols on the Idol 'had some meaning', but experts have not managed to understand what this could be. 

The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago


The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago


The Idol is the oldest wooden statue in the world, estimated as having been constructed approximately  9,500 years ago

First reconstructions of the Idol as walking and standing upright, archeologist Vladimir Tolmachev and his drawings of the Idol, and marked faces of the Idol. Pictures: Yekaterinburg History Museum 

Author Petr Zolin, citing scientific work by Savchenko and Professor Mikhail Zhilin, stated: 'The characters of Idol cannot have an unambiguous interpretation. If these are images of spirits that inhabited the human world in ancient times, the vertical position of figures (one above the other) probably relate to their hierarchy.

'Placing images on the front and back planes of the Idol, possibly indicate that they belong to different worlds. If there are depicted myths about the origin of humans and the world, the vertical arrangement of the images may reflect the sequence of events. Ornaments can be special signs which mark something as significant.'

One theory is that the Idol could be an ancient 'navigator', a map. Straight lines, wave lines and arrows indicated ways of getting to the destination and the number of days for a journey, with waves meaning water path, straight lines meaning ravines, and arrows meaning hills, according to this version.

Comments (5)

Has there been anything new, following up on his article? While I doubt that Germany will have turned the two archæologists over to the Russian court system, but if the facts are as they were stated in th article, there should be some sort of repercussions.
Francis C. Zanger, Seattle, WA, United States
23/08/2021 16:49
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Looking at Tolmachev’s rendering of the Shigir Idol statue (far right rendering with two red circles), it is displaying characteristics of high energy plasma discharges as specified by the branching “limbs” along the vertical “trunk” line forming chevron patterns.



These “branches” when observed in high energy plasma discharges can be rising, lowering or straight across depending on the time track of the discharge.



This pattern is identified as a Columnar stack of Plasma Toroids or characterized as a Pipette, and has been documented globally in artefacts and rock art.



The additional faces in the idol are also characteristics of high energy plasma discharges which have numerously been scientifically recorded in the lab and with computer simulation.



Without scientific data, conclusions remain conjecture.



It’s unfortunate such eminent scientists knowingly resorted to this illegal approach for their analysis.
Paul Campbell, Halto Hills, Canada
28/08/2015 01:12
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They are probably looking at historic ring patterns. I would think that could by obtained by imaging with no need to cut a cross section
Richard, monticello, NY USA
17/08/2015 18:35
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it means when the people who made this carving, the tree was 159 years old when they cut it down over 9 thousand years or how ever long ago it was. so its like 9 thousand 159 years old if you added it up. pretty cool To me it just looked like design but then it does kind of make sense it could be a map. How tall is this thing anyways? Also that looks to be a pretty large chunk they took off it. They should be fined or something for doing that without the proper persimmon. I hate how some people think they are beyond having to get the proper permission because note think what they are doing is oh so important and they are beyond having to go thru proper channels like anyone else would. I hope they didn't remove any of the carvings along with that hunk. I would think a small sliver would have been enough to test they didn't need such a large think of it.
Rebecca Turner, WA/ USA
16/08/2015 23:54
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How come it is maid on 159 years material but depitcs supposed culture of 9K years? Don't understand this statement.
Yorgio, CA/USA
16/08/2015 20:23
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