Siberian Ice Maiden

The Siberian Ice Maiden, known locally as the Altai Princess (Russian: Алтайская принцесса), the Princess of Ukok (Russian: Принце́сса Уко́ка), Deva ("Virgin") and Ochy-bala (Russian: Очы-бала, the heroine of the Altaic epic), is a mummy of a woman from the 5th century BC, discovered in 1993 in a kurgan belonging to one of the Pazyryk burials, from the Pazyryk culture in the Republic of Altai, Russia. It was among the most significant Russian archaeological findings of the late 20th century. In 2012 she was moved to a special mausoleum at the Republican National Museum in Gorno-Altaisk.

Siberian Ice Maiden
Mummy of the Siberian Ice Maiden
Material	Mummified corpse, remains of a burial chamber
Discovered	Ukok Plateau 49°17′59″N 87°33′46″E
Location

Identity and dating

The Ukok Plateau

Known by several names, including the Altai Princess, Princess of Ukok, and Ochy-bala, a heroine of Altaian epic tradition, the woman later became widely known in English as the Siberian Ice Maiden.

She was a member of the Pazyryk culture, a Scytho-Siberian society that occupied parts of the Eurasian Steppe between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE. Her remains were discovered in a kurgan on the Ukok Plateau in what is now the Altai Republic of southern Siberia, near the borders of Russia, Mongolia, and China.

The woman lived during the early centuries of Pazyryk society. Dendrochronological analysis of the logs used to construct her burial chamber, together with the examination of organic material recovered from the stomachs of horses buried alongside her, indicated that she was interred during the spring of the 5th century BCE. Preserved within the frozen burial chamber, her remains lay undisturbed for approximately 2,400 years until their excavation in 1993. At the time of her death, she was estimated to have been between 20 and 30 years old.

Discovery and excavation

During the summer of 1993, archaeologist Natalia Polosmak and her team from the Russian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography discovered the woman's burial on the Ukok Plateau in what is now the Altai Republic of southern Siberia. It was Polosmak's fourth field season in the region, where the institute was investigating the early habitation of southern Siberia.

Guided by border guard Mikhail Chepanov, the expedition investigated a group of kurgans located in a disputed strip of territory near the border between Russia and China. Before reaching the woman's tomb, the team encountered a later burial that had been placed above the original chamber. The secondary burial contained a skeleton in a stone-and-wood coffin together with three horses. According to Polosmak, it may have belonged to people from outside the Pazyryk culture who regarded burial within an existing kurgan as an honour.

Excavation of the overlying burial eventually revealed the woman's tomb below. A robber's shaft dug into the later grave had provided a route through which water and snow entered the older chamber. This sequence of events contributed to the formation of the frozen conditions that preserved her remains and grave goods for approximately 2,400 years until their discovery in 1993.

Condition and preservation

Tattoo motif on the arm of the Siberian Ice Maiden.

The woman's remains were preserved by frozen conditions within her burial chamber. After a later burial was placed above the original tomb, water and snow entered the chamber through a robber's shaft and collected around the coffin. The water subsequently froze, forming an ice block that encased the burial. Because the chamber remained frozen beneath layers of stone and permafrost, her body, clothing, and grave goods survived for approximately 2,400 years after her interment in the 5th century BCE.

The frozen conditions preserved a wide range of organic materials that rarely survive in archaeological contexts. Her clothing, wooden furnishings, food offerings, and other grave goods remained largely intact. Her skin was also preserved, including animal-style deer tattoos on her shoulder, wrist, and thumb.

Tomb chamber

Reconstruction of the tomb chamber of the Siberian Ice Maiden, in the Anokhin Museum.

The Ice Maiden and her horses were oriented with their heads toward the east, as was the case in other Pazyryk burials. The cause of the Ice Maiden's death was unknown until 2014, when new research suggested breast cancer, combined with injuries sustained in a fall, as likely culprits. The original researcher Polosmak stated in a 2004 article, "Probably, for the sick woman, constant inhalation of cannabis vapor became a forced necessity (Polosmak, Trunova, 2004) and she was often in a state of altered consciousness." This created the mistaken belief that the woman was buried with cannabis on her person. However, she was buried with coriander seeds which were mistaken as cannabis.

She may have had the elevated status of a priestess in her community based upon the items found in her chamber.

Associated objects and clothing

Siberian Ice Maiden horse harness, Anokhin Museum, Gorno-Altaysk, Altai Republic, Siberia, Russia

The woman was buried in a log coffin carved from a single larch tree trunk and decorated with leather appliqués depicting deer. Inside the burial chamber were two small wooden tables with tray-shaped tops. The tables were collapsible, with removable legs that allowed them to be transported easily. Horsemeat and mutton had been laid upon the tables, while a wooden vessel fitted with a carved handle and stirrer contained the residue of a dairy product. An unidentified beverage had been placed in a vessel made from yak horn. The horn vessel showed signs of wear and repair before its inclusion in the burial, indicating that it had been used prior to burial.

She was buried wearing a yellow blouse made of wild tussah silk, a crimson-and-white striped wool skirt fastened with a tasselled belt, and thigh-high white felt leggings. Grave goods included marten fur, a small mirror made of polished metal and wood carved with deer figures, and an elaborate headdress nearly 0.9 m (3.0 ft) tall. Mirrors were commonly carried by members of the Pazyryk culture and were often suspended from a belt during life. Built around a wooden framework covered with moulded felt and decorated with eight carved feline figures covered in gold, the headdress was so large that it required a coffin approximately 2.4 m (7.9 ft) long. A stone dish containing coriander seeds was also placed within the burial.

Controversy

Siberian Ice Maiden inside her wooden sarcophagus (reconstruction from burial, Anokhin Museum).

The excavation of the Ice Maiden was carried out with great care, although methods used to melt the ice and remove the artifacts and body from the coffin were subject to criticism. The mummy also suffered deterioration during her refrigerated transport from the site to the lab, as the preservation efforts could not prevent the fading of her tattoos.

A dispute developed between the Russian authorities and the local inhabitants regarding the Ice Maiden, as locals mythologized her as the nomadic progenitor of the Altaian people.

Despite efforts by the Russian Federation government to undermine regional political agency and the cultural sovereignty of the Altai, the Ice Maiden became a symbol of Altaian identity. A local journalist described the issue:

Sometimes it is difficult to openly talk about politics, so we use her [the Ice Maiden] as a metaphor to discuss the difficult position of Altaians in Russia. Claiming her is claiming our land.

For some 19 years following her discovery, she was preserved at a scientific institute in Novosibirsk. In September 2012, the mummy was returned to the Altai where she is kept in a mausoleum at the Republican National Museum in the capital Gorno-Altaysk. Subsequent excavations in the area are forbidden at the request of the Altaian people, though it is believed more artifacts and burial mounds are in the area. An archeologist involved in the excavation expressed fears that the bodies in the mounds, if left unrecovered, will decay due to climate change.

DNA research by the Russian Academy of Sciences found clear differences in the Ice Maiden's genetic material and that of modern Altaian communities, which led archaeologists to claim that the mummy was European and that Altaians were recent migrants to the region. This was used as a reason to keep the mummy in Novosibirsk, and in 2004 the archaeologists who had refused to repatriate the Ice Maiden to the Altai because of her supposed European heritage were awarded the prestigious State Prize of the Russian Federation. Claims regarding the Ice Maiden's European or Altaian descent are, however, considered the products of indigenous Altaian cultural identity and political autonomy being undermined by a broad "Russian" nationalism.

In popular culture

Siberian Ice Maiden (reconstruction, Anokhin Museum).

• Ledi, a 2018 book-length poem by the Canadian poet Kim Trainor, narrates the controversial excavation of the Ice Maiden.

See also

• Dendrochronology
• Scythians