Shigir Idol redated - "birth of ritual art"

[Duncan Head]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/20/shigur-idol-shatters-expert-views-birth-of-ritual-art-hunter-gatherers

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/early-art-in-the-urals-new-research-on-the-wooden-sculpture-from-shigir/1EE151AB1E571968B10267E48B78362A/core-reader

[Patrick Waterson]

"Results for samples 5 (MAN-21898: 8957±28 BP), 3 (MAN-22438:9262±29 BP) and 7 (MAN-21897: 9450±40 BP) from the inner part of the sculpture are considerably older (c. 9000–8000 cal BC), supporting a Preboreal to early Boreal date. Results for samples 2 and 6 (MAN-21896: 10238±43 BP; MAN-22437: 10518±32 BP) are even older and would assign the piece to a period close to the end of the Late Palaeolithic (c. 10500–10000 cal BC).

The results of these seven new AMS dates confirm the Stone Age attribution, but the difference of up to c. 3000 years requires explanation."

[Some close-to-surface samples are considered to have been affected by restoration treatment.]

"Samples 2 and 6 are therefore the most reliable, suggesting that the find should be dated to c. 10200 cal BC"

Interesting.