The Pazyryk practice of removing organs and brain and replacing them with preservative materials required specialized knowledge and significant labor.

This was skilled work, not improvised.

The people who embalmed the Ice Maiden knew what they were doing.

Then: the months of post-mortem ceremony.

The traces of chair material found on her skin suggest that her mummified body was seated and displayed at ceremonial gatherings before burial.

This extended period — potentially months — of keeping the body as a participant in community life is one of the more striking aspects of the Pazyryk burial tradition.

Then: the construction of the burial itself.