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Thursday, October 20, 2016

Sibero-Scythian idol's "racial realignment"


From The Siberian Times:

He has a massive nose with flared nostrils, wide open mouth, a bushy moustache and a beard. And yet all is not quite as it seems, for this sculpture, the most northerly of this genre in Asia, underwent an historic version of plastic surgery perhaps 1,500 years ago to give him a less Caucasian and more Asian appearance, according to experts.

...

So the original European look of the idol was changed to a more Asian countenance. Why would this happen?

'Judging by archeological finds found inside the grottos, this anthropomorphic idol was made during the Scythian time,' Yuri Grevtsov said. 'The first change came when the more European looking face was transformed to make it appear more Mongoloid was likely to have happened in the early Middle Ages with a shift of the population in the Angara River area,' he said.

In other words, incoming ethnic groups preferred the idol to be more akin to their own looks.

Source: Siberia's stone idols - 2,400 year old Ust-Taseyevsky idol 'underwent racial realignment early in Middle Ages', losing his European looks by Tamara Zubchuk

6 comments:

Dude Manbro said...

Not really surprising.

If you ask an Ethiopian, Armenian and Swede to draw a picture of Moses, the results would likely be different for each one. Look at the differences between depictions of Buddha from South Asia and East Asia for an easy example.

andrew said...

Man created God in his own image.

Chewie said...

Exactly, or how the depiction of Genghis Khan changes to match those who depict him.

Samuel Andrews said...

@Magila,

Genghis Khan wasn't a red haired European among Mongols. Modern Mongolians have the least amount of European and Southern/Western Asian ancestry among Northern Asians, so I just can't see how any of them less than 1,000 years ago had a European phenotype.

Ramber said...


@Samuel Andrews

If you don't mind, can you take sometimes to answer my questions please?

1) I notice that in this Eurogenes post Scytho-Siberian idol, you said that "Genghis Khan wasn't a red hair Mongol and that modern day Mongolians have the least European and Southern/West Asian ancestry among Northern Asians". My question it how much West Eurasian do Mongolians really have? I have been wondering this question for along time. saw very diverse and varied results of Mongolians from Mongolas (I think Mongols in China) scoring only 1-4% West Eurasian up to around 7-10% West Eurasian in Khalkha and Qinghai Mongols (based on my MDLP k23b calculations) to 18-20% West Eurasian in Mongolians from Mongolia. Although my calculations and estimates are from MDLP K23b which is ADMIXTURE and likely susceptible to genetic drift, I think it gives a picture.

Can I ask you please if you know how much West Eurasian do modern Mongolians really have since you said they have the least "Euro and South/West Asian" among Northern Asians?

2) In another comment in Davidski's newest post, you state that "Turkey, Iran, Armenia, and Iraq are the only countries where there were once Indo-European groups but today they don't have much" while other "IE regions have at very least 20% with few exceptions". Do you know how much Steppe do ethnic groups in the four mentioned countries they have today? Also other IE regions that have at least few you mean like Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Northern South Asia?

I hope you forgive me if my question sounds strange, but I am very curious to learn.

Thank you and regards,

jv said...

Thank you David! Love the stone statues in Siberia. Especially enjoy the Okunev Culture faces! jv