Wooden statue 5.3m high with eight faces gazed over the water for only two decades, but leaves us with a conundrum 11,600 years later.
For hundreds of years visitors to this Arctic outpost have been frightened by terrifying totems and human sacrifices.
Samples taken from cubs frozen in permafrost for at least 12,000 years.
Your guide is the Chairman of the Tuva Republic's government, Sholban Kara-Ool.
Over 300 years old, the 'jetons' - used in lieu of coins or for counting - were found along with artifacts hoarded by the Northern Selkups.
Research in some of Russia's remotest regions on 43,000 year old bones may have a very modern application in saving lives of coronary patients.
Parts of massive skull were also found in silt of Yamal peninsula’s lake, but sadly there was no brain nor tusks.