“Nomadic” describes a mode of subsistence, not a level of cultural complexity.

She matters because her tattoos are among the oldest and best-preserved examples of tattooing in the world, and they open a window into a practice that was apparently widespread across the ancient steppe world but has otherwise left almost no surviving evidence.

She matters because the controversies surrounding her removal and the demand for her return illuminate the complex and often fraught relationship between archaeological science and indigenous communities whose ancestral heritage is the subject of that science.

The Ice Maiden’s story has been part of the broader conversation about how archaeology should relate to living communities — a conversation that is still ongoing and still unresolved.