AllatRa by Anastasia Novykh 2 www.allatra.org

AllatRa by Anastasia Novykh
are clay contour stamps, usually having an ornamental pattern. They were quite common
in many cultures of the Neolithic period. It is believed that one of their functions was to
apply some sort of “tattoos” in the form of signs and symbols with paint on human body
before a sacred ritual or a ceremony.
And, of course, the Shigir culture (the 5th-4th millennium BCE, the Middle Urals and
Trans-Urals; modern Russia) can be highlighted. Its artefacts include a wooden sculpture
made of larch, which is the oldest one found in the world to date. It was named after the
place where it was discovered, the "Big Shigir idol". The torso of the statue is covered
with carved geometric ornament from all sides. The sculpture itself dates back to the
Mesolithic period (9,500 years ago).
Rigden: By the way, this idol, so called by archaeologists, also has information about
the seven dimensions in the form of the seven of his guises (schematic images of the
human faces). And the seventh dimension is represented as the upper three-dimensional
(double-sided) leading “face” while the six dimensions, in the form of six contour
“faces”. The latter ones were cut on the broad planes of the idol's “torso”: three were cut
on the front, symbolising a three-dimensional world, and another three guises, on the
reverse side, symbolising dimensions which are inaccessible to a common person (the
fourth, the fifth, and the sixth ones).
Anastasia: The most interesting thing is that scientists are still arguing about what this
could mean and also about the meaning of the symbols and signs on it. Interestingly, in
the first description of this idol by a museum worker who then received this object, it
was mentioned that the idol had his legs crossed. And this points at the lotus position
and perceiving the world in the process of meditation. But, obviously, this part of the
artefact was very "inconvenient" for someone as it at least made people think about the
connection with the East, so it is exactly this part that "disappeared without a trace" in
the museum store-room before the revolution.
That's what losing the key to the original Knowledge means: the artefact was found, but
nobody knows what to do with it and how to read the ancient signs and symbols. As a
matter of fact, on the territory of modern Russia, they discovered many symbols of the
ancient archaeological cultures that are highly interesting for the researcher. For
example, the Upper Volga culture (it was located in the area of the Volga River (Upper
Volga), in the Volga-Oka interfluve, on the present territory of the Moscow region,
Russia), in the layers of which dishes with the carved ornament and symbols were found
2
www.allatra.org