Posted on 08/17/2006 5:09:28 PM PDT by blam
“Ancient Russian Centaur” Found In Novgorod
17.08.2006
During archeological diggings in Velikiy Novgorod Russian scientists have found a figure they named "ancient Russian centaur". The figure was found in layers dated back to the end of XI century in the Troitsky dig near the Novgorod Kremlin.
Unknown craftsman had cut a wooden bearded man with a hat on his head and a bow behind his back. The figure has hooves instead of feet and is covered with a golden coating. It is broken in that very part, where human body transforms to the body of a horse. The other part is lost. Scientists report that such figures have never been found before.
Experts suppose the centaur to be the child toy, but at the same time they mark that toys in Ancient Russian had never had such coatings. The centaur is now heading for the expertise to find out its real age and the wood it was cut from.
GGG Ping.
A figurine of an old Russian centaur puzzles Novgorodian archeologists
Velikiy Novgorod, August 16, Interfax - Archeologists in Velikiy Novgorod excavated an unusual figurine of an ‘old Russian centaur.’
A source in the Novgorod regional committee for culture and tourism told Interfax that the figurine had been found in the archeological layer of the late eleventh century near the Novgorod Kremlin.
The ‘old Russian centaur’ figurine was carved from wood by an anonymous craftsman. This is a bearded man with a cap on his head and a bow on his back. He has hoofs instead of legs. The hoofs are gilded. The figurine is broken where a human body runs into animal’s.
The second part of a figurine has not been found as yet.
The purpose of an ‘old Russian centaur’ puzzles the scholars.
No one ever found such ‘centaurs.’ It may be a child’s toy. However, old Russian toys were usually not gilded, the archeologists noted.
The find will be given to experts who will decide what kind of wood was used and when exactly this mysterious figurine was made.
So like Novgordia was a centaur of ancient civilisation???
parsy, who couldn't resist.
If the thing is broken at the middle and one half is missing, How do they have details about both halves?
Don't know. That's why I posted both articles about the same find.
Its worded quite curiously isnt it?
The centaur is a Russian inwention!
11th century, Novgorod, that's Varangian / Byzantine in origin.
So does this find support evolution, ID, or creationism?
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Ambiguous sentence.I'm assuming they meant one complete but broken centaur and half of another figurine.?
A CENTAUR OF THE RUSSIAN HINTERLAND
"I first saw it some twenty years ago in an Arkhangelsk home: a fairytale cross between a man and a horse. It was standing proudly amongst the cutglass in a sideboard, wearing a cocked blue hat. Its right hand was raised as though asking to be set free from the glass prison, and it was winking slyly with its left eye as if it were about to divulge a secret. "Where does this 'centaur' come from?" I asked. "From Kargopol, of course," was the reply. "Have you never heard anything about Kargopol?" Of course, I knew something about Kargopol. A northern township on the beautiful Onega River, it's located not far from the river's source. The settlement is believed to have been founded by people from Novgorod in the llth and 12th centuries. But why it's called Kargopol, no one knows. Inhabitants of Novgorod, who maintained close trade relations with Byzantium, could well have given it a Greek name, "Kargopolis", meaning "harbour." ...
http://www.rustoys.com/kargopol.html
Nice!
Just lovely.
Good for another bump.
For some reason, when I look again at Fred's cool modern centaur sculpture photo, the "Lullaby League" tune from the Wizard of Oz starts running through my head...
When I look at the centaur, I think of Mister Tumnus in "Narnia", hehehe.
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