An ancient wooden carving of the bisexual Viking god Odin suggests the prehistoric timber circle monument Seahenge and another, even older, structure might have included totem pole-like carvings, according to archaeologists who have excavated the over 4,000-year-old British wood monuments. Because Odin was a mythological figure in prehistoric religion, the possible link between the carving and the monuments could mean that the mysterious circles held religious, funerary, or magical significance for the late Neolithic people who constructed them on Holme beach in Norfolk, England. Archaeologists connected the unlikely object with the circles after the idol, found several decades ago in the Thames Estuary, recently was radiocarbon dated to 2,250 B.C. This year coincides with the construction of Seahenge, a wooden monument built out of a giant, overturned tree stump surrounded by a circle of timbers. At first, the carved object puzzled scientists, who could not determine if it was a man or a woman, or why its left eye appeared to have been mutilated.
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