Twice as Old as Pyramids

The Pyramids

When the popular press release statements about an ancient artefact, it is not uncommon to use something equally ancient as a way to set a context for the age of said artefact. In this way comparing an ancient wooden status to a pyramid sets the mind-set of your casual reader. It is of course wildly inaccurate and granted, the suspected age of this artefact is over 10,000 years we can only assume that the pyramids in question are in fact the Giza pyramids as these were built in about 2580BC which makes them 4595 years old at the time of writing.

What though if we were talking about the oldest Egyptian Pyramid, the Saqqara Pyramid is 2630BC making it 4645 years old.

If we travel to Java, there’s a pyramid that may be even 20,000 (although tests are saying closer to 9,000) years old which of course makes this press statement fall to pieces.

Early Religion

Even so, the Shigir Idol is an ancient thing and is covered with some form of ancient text which of course we can’t decipher, not without another version of the Rosetta Stone – highly unlikely. Being an idol of course it will be on the IS list-of-things-to-blow-up.

Was this carved object simply just thrown into a lake or peat bog to satisfy the Gods or pray for help. Maybe that cult weren’t into sacrifice unlike the unruly Brits who threw people into peat bogs, like ‘Peat Marsh’.

We’ll never know.