It is still the most striking thing about her.

And it remains, in important ways, the most mysterious.

The Last Word: On Ice And Memory

The Pazyryk Ice Maiden was found by chance — or rather, by the specific combination of a previous grave robbery, an infiltrating water source, a freezing climate, and thirty years of systematic archaeological work on the Ukok Plateau that happened to bring Natalia Polosmak’s team to the right kurgan at the right time.

She was not waiting to be found in any intentional sense.