The subsequent years of publication and study have made Polosmak one of the leading voices in Pazyryk research.

She has written extensively about the Ice Maiden and about Pazyryk culture more broadly, and her interpretations — of the tattoos, of the burial practices, of the social structure — are central to the scholarly literature on the subject.

Polosmak has also been engaged with the ethical and political dimensions of the Ice Maiden’s situation: the conflict between the scientific value of keeping the remains accessible for study and the cultural claims of the Altai community to their ancestor’s remains.

These are not easy tensions to navigate, and Polosmak’s engagement with them reflects the complexity of modern archaeology’s relationship with the indigenous communities whose ancestors it studies.