Siberian Ice Maiden

Introduction

Siberian Ice Maiden

The mummified remains of the “Ice Maiden,” a Scytho-Siberian woman who lived on the Eurasian Steppes in the 5th c. BCE, were found undisturbed in a subterranean burial chamber. Natalia Polosmak and her team discovered the Ice Maiden during the summer of 1993, when she was a senior research fellow at the Russian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk. It was Polosmak’s fourth season working on the Ukok Plateau where the Institute was continuing its research into the early habitation of southern Siberia. Nearly two decades later, there are few English language sources available for the important discovery: Polosmak’s National Geographic article from October 1994, and a BBC documentary (1997) featuring Polosmak and members of her team are the most informative and accessible.

The Ice Maiden was a representative of the Pazyryk culture that thrived between the sixth and second centuries BCE in the Siberian steppe. The Ice Maiden’s tribe is designated under the larger Scytho-Siberian cultural group that encompasses a vast region, stretching from the lands of the Scythians, north of the Black Sea, all the way to the Ukok Plateau. Given this enormous geographic range, the Scytho-Siberian designation can be seen to be vague and inaccurate, as it suggests that a common culture existed among a large number of tribes of semi-nomadic herdsmen with some common features but little interaction.

The Ukok Plateau

The Ice Maiden’s tomb was found on the Ukok Plateau near the border of China, in what is now the Autonomous Republic of Altai. The plateau, part of the Eurasian Steppes, is characterized by a harsh, arid climate. The area is known by the local people as the “second layer of heaven,” one step above ordinary people and events. Present day Altay herdsmen still bring their sheep and horses to the plateau during winter because the fierce wind blows the snow off of the grass and provides grazing land for the animals despite the freezing temperatures.

Discovery and Excavation

Polosmak and her team were guided by a border guard, Lt. Mikhail Chepanov, to a group of kurgans located in a strip of territory disputed between Russia and China. A kurgan is a burial mound filled in with smaller sediment and covered with a pile of rocks; typically, the mound covered a tomb chamber, which contained a burial inside a log coffin, with accompanying grave goods. Such burial chambers were built from notched wood logs to form a small cabin, which may have resembled the semi-nomads’ winter shelters. The Ice Maiden's tomb chamber was constructed in this way, and the wood and other organic materials present have allowed her burial to be dated. A core sample from the logs of her chamber was analyzed by a dendrochronologist, and samples of organic matter from the horses’ stomachs were examined as well, indicating that the lady was buried in the spring, at some point during the fifth century BCE.

Before Polosmak and her crew reached the Ice Maiden’s chamber, they hit upon a second later burial in the same kurgan positioned on top of the Maiden's wooden tomb chamber. The contents included a stone and wood coffin containing a skeleton, along with three horses. Polosmak believes that this secondary burial was that of an outside group, perhaps of subordinate peoples, who considered it honorable to bury their dead in Pazyryk kurgans. A shaft dug into the kurgan indicated that this later grave had been robbed, another means by which water and snow entered and seeped into the Ice Maiden’s hollow burial chamber. The water collected, froze, and formed an ice block within the chamber which never fully thawed because of the steppe climate, permafrost, and the rocks piled on top of the mound which deflected the sun’s rays. The contents of the burial remained frozen for 2400 years, until the time of Polosmak’s excavation.

The Ice Maiden's Tomb Chamber

Inside the Maiden’s tomb chamber was her coffin, which was made of a solid larch wood tree trunk decorated with leather appliques bearing deer figures. The chamber also contained two small wood tables with tray-shaped tops, which were used to serve food and drink. Horsemeat and mutton had been placed on the tables; the residue of a dairy product, perhaps yoghurt, was found in a wooden vessel with a carved handle and stirrer; and some kind of beverage was served in a horn cup to sustain her on her journey.

The Ice Maiden and her horses were oriented with their heads toward the east, as was the case in other Pazyryk burials. She was between 20 and 30 years old at the time of her death from unknown causes. She may have had the elevated status of a priestess in her community based upon the items found in her chamber. The Ice Maiden’s preserved skin has the mark of an animal-style deer tattoo on one of her shoulders, and another on her wrist and thumb. She was buried in a yellow silk tussah blouse, a crimson-and-white striped wool skirt with a tassel belt, thigh-high white felt leggings, with a marten fur, a small mirror made from polished metal and wood with carved deer figures, and a headdress that stood nearly three feet tall. The size of the headdress necessitated a coffin that was eight feet long. The headdress had a wooden substructure with a molded felt covering and eight carved feline figures covered in gold. There were remains of coriander seeds in a stone dish that may have been provided for the Maiden’s medicinal use.

Criticism

File:Ukok princess reconstruction.jpg

Balueva's reconstruction of the Ice Maiden's face

The excavation of the Ice Maiden was carried out with great care, although in some ways it has been seen as problematic, due to the methods used to melt the ice and remove the artifacts and body from the coffin. The mummy also suffered deterioration during her transport from the site to the lab, and even when she was in a refrigerated space, which resulted in her tattoos fading. In addition, an ongoing dispute has developed between the Russian authorities and the local inhabitants, who lay claim to the Ice Maiden and other Pazyryk kurgans. Polosmak and her Russian colleagues are currently banned from conducting further excavation on the Ukok Plateau. One of Polosmak’s students, American Jeanne Smoot, explained that members of the team suffered nightmares while they were camped out during the dig. Polosmak herself felt that the spirit of the Ice Maiden had tried to sabotage the mission when the helicopter taking the team back to Novosibirsk almost crashed in a blizzard.

A reconstruction of the Ice Maiden’s face was created using her skull, in conjunction with measurements taken from the skulls, facial features, and skin thickness of present-day Altay inhabitants. The artist who created the reconstruction, Tanya Balueva, was documented as saying that the Ice Maiden “is a clear-cut example of the Caucasian race with no typically Mongolian features.” Rima Eriknova, the director of the Altay Regional Museum, is not in agreement, commenting that, “They made the Ice Maiden completely European.” The assignment of race to the remains of the Ice Maiden based on skull measurements and facial features is fraught with controversy, serving to fuel the politically and ethnically charged debate over her patrimony, which has not been resolved conclusively.

References

“Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden.” NOVA, Nov. 24, 1998.

Polosmak, Natalia. “A Mummy Unearthed from the Pastures of Heaven.” National Geographic, Oct. 1994.

Van Noten, Francis and Natalia Polosmak. “The Frozen Tomb of the Scythians.” Endeavour 19, no. 2 (1995): 76-83.

See Also

• Altai Republic
• Dendrochronology
• Eurasian Steppes
• Kurgan
• Mummy
• Natalia Polosmak
• Pazyryk burials
• Scythians
• Ukok Plateau

External Links

Transcript of the BBC/NOVA documentary "Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden"