The 2,500-Year-Old Frozen Woman Found In Siberia — And The Secrets Hidden Inside The Ice Maiden’s Tomb
For archaeology, permafrost thaw is a race against time.
The same conditions that preserved the Ice Maiden — the stable, cold, frozen environment — are deteriorating.
Organic materials that have been frozen for thousands of years are being exposed to the microbial decomposition that the cold prevented.
Textiles, wood, leather, foodstuffs, soft tissues — all of these will deteriorate rapidly once the permafrost thaws.
The kurgans of the Ukok Plateau and other Siberian high-altitude sites are not immune to this process.
The permafrost that preserved the Ice Maiden is part of the same global system that is now warming.
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