In the 1890s, gold miners pulled a wooden idol from a peat bog that revealed Ice Age art older than the pyramids
TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Jun 02, 2026, 17:50 (IST)
Discovered in Russia's Ural region in 1890, the Shigir Idol, a 12,000-year-old wooden sculpture, has rewritten early human history. This ancient artifact, twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids, reveals that Ice Age hunter-gatherers possessed complex spiritual lives and advanced artistic skills, challenging previous assumptions about settled societies creating monumental art.