It was connected — through the steppe routes that their horses could traverse efficiently — to the world of Chinese production to the east, to the world of Greek and Persian luxury goods that arrived from the west, to the world of Inner Asian pastoralists in between.

The Ice Maiden’s burial reflects this connectivity: Chinese silk, golden ornaments, carved wooden objects, felt textiles — a material world assembled from the products of multiple cultures.

The Natalia Polosmak Story

Behind the Ice Maiden’s discovery is the story of the archaeologist who found her, and that story deserves specific attention because it is inseparable from the discovery itself.

Natalia Polosmak was working as a researcher at Novosibirsk’s Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography when she led the 1993 Ukok Plateau expedition.

She had been working on Pazyryk burials for years and was an established specialist in the material culture of the Altai region.