Free Republic

The ancient mummy of a mysterious young woman, known as the Ukok Princess, is finally returning home to the Altai Republic this month. She is to be kept in a special mausoleum at the Republican National Museum in capital Gorno-Altaisk, where eventually she will be displayed in a glass sarcophagus to tourists. For the past 19 years, since her discovery, she was kept mainly at a scientific institute in Novosibirsk, apart from a period in Moscow when her remains were treated by the same scientists who preserve the body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin. To mark the move 'home', The...

Female 'Amazon' warrior buried 2,500 years ago in Altai Mountains was... male By The Siberian Times reporter 01 December 2015 New DNA findings alter the sex of one of most famous recent Siberian archeological finds of human remains. Archeologists and anthropologists believed she was not only female - and a pig-tailed teenager - but a member of an elite corps of warriors within the Pazyryk culture. Picture: Marcel Nyffenegger, Natalia Polosmak A Swiss taxidermy expert brought 'her' to life, recreating the 'virgin' warrior's looks from facial bones, and some observers commented on her distinctly masculine appearance. Yet archeologists and anthropologists believed she...

The body of the ice-maiden (aka Ukok Princess, etc.) is finally returning to the Altai Republic in a region close to Russia's frontiers with Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan. Her well-preserved remains were discovered in 1993 by Novosibirsk scientist Natalia Polosmak during an archeological expedition. After discovery, she was taken to a scientific institute in Novosibirsk. The local people in the Altai believe the princess's removal led to bad consequences, causing a crash of the helicopter carrying her remains away and a spate of 300 earth tremors in a six month period. Upon return, she'll be kept in a special mausoleum...

The Ice-Maiden is the most famous Pazyryk (Siberian culture probably related to the Scythians) mummy yet found. She died at about the age of 25. Buried clothed in luxurious wild silk, her body was perfectly preserved in perma-frost. But it is the tattoos that set Pazyryk burials apart. “Compared to all tattoos found by archeologists around the world, those on the mummies of the Pazyryk people are the most complicated and the most beautiful,” according to the lead researcher, Dr. Natalia Polosmak.

The excavator smashed the prehistoric ceremonial burial chamber in the Altai Mountains, wrecking the grave of a suspected the grave of a suspected 16 to 20 year old combatant from the colourful Pazyryk culture. Local culture heritage official Dr Vasily Oinoshev said: 'Only the human head and upper part of the horse remained intact in the burial ground.Unfortunately, the rest was destroyed by heavy machinery. 'Apparently, this was a young woman, judging by the teeth. All of them are intact and in good condition. We attribute her to Pazyryk culture, and we have preliminarily dated the burial as being 2,500...