This distinction is one of the reasons her burial is considered so significant for understanding Pazyryk gender and social organization.

Taken together, the corpus of Pazyryk preserved individuals — the Ice Maiden, the Warrior, Rudenko’s earlier finds — provides a multi-individual perspective on Pazyryk society that no single burial can achieve.

The patterns of tattoo placement, the correlations between status markers and burial goods, the evidence for health and diet — these patterns become more interpretively powerful when seen across multiple individuals rather than just one.

The Cannabis In The Tomb