On July 7, Chinese archaeologists from the Academy of Social Sciences announced that they have reconstituted a 5,300-year-old Mongolion pottery statue found at a relic site in North China, according to Xinhua news agency.

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Hardy Dutch swimmers brave the icy North Sea on January 1, 2012 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. A record number of 10,000 people took the plunge in this year's traditional New Year's dip. The high turnout was attributed to the mild weather with a sea temperature of 8 degrees compared to 4 degrees last year. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

A man reacts after catching a trout with his hands during an event promoting the Ice Festival on a frozen river in Hwacheon, about 20 km (12 miles) south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, January 10, 2015. The annual ice festival, which is one of the most famous and biggest festivals in South Korea, expects to see more than 1,000,000 people attend. The festival lasts for three weeks from January 10 this year. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

South Korea's Amry Special Warfare Command (SWC) soldiers aim their machine guns in a frozen river during a winter exercise in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Thursday, January 8, 2015. About 200 SWC soldiers participated in this routine two-week winter drill. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Vehicles clog a highway during a hazy day in Beijing, China, Wednesday, February 26, 2014. Beijing remained cloaked in hazardous white pollution hiding much of its skyline Wednesday, despite the announced closures or production cuts at 147 of the city's industrial plants. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A South Korean woman looks out at the flood water after a torrential rain storm hit the capital city on July 27, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea issued a national crisis warning on as torrential rain caused flooding in parts of the country, killing over 35 with at least ten missing. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

U.S. Marine soldiers from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan, participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation at Pohang seashore on March 29, 2012 in Pohang, South Korea. Though South Korean has remained technically at war with North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the tension of Korean Peninsula has again raised as Pyongyang's new leader Kim Jong-Eun administration announced to launch a “Satellite” between April 12 to 16. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)