Siberian Ice Maiden

The Siberian Ice Maiden, also known as the Altai Princess or Princess of Ukok, is the naturally preserved mummy of a young woman from the Pazyryk culture who lived during the 5th century BCE. Discovered in 1993 in a frozen kurgan on the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Republic of southern Siberia, Russia, her remains were preserved for approximately 2,400 years by ice that formed within the burial chamber. The burial contained exceptionally well-preserved clothing, tattoos, wooden furnishings, sacrificed horses, and other organic materials that provided rare insights into the culture and mortuary practices of Iron Age nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe.

Since her excavation, the Siberian Ice Maiden has become a prominent symbol of Indigenous Altaian cultural heritage and the subject of debates over archaeology, identity, and the repatriation of human remains. She is currently housed at the Republican National Museum in Gorno-Altaisk.

Identity and dating

Known by several names, including the Altai Princess (Russian: Алтайская принцесса), Princess of Ukok (Russian: Принце́сса Уко́ка), Deva ("Virgin"), and Ochy-bala (Russian: Очы-бала), a heroine of Altaian epic tradition, the woman became widely known in English-language sources 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, China, and Kazakhstan.

Dendrochronological analysis of the logs used to construct the 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.