A Pazyryk kurgan was not simply a pile of earth over a grave.

It was an engineered funerary structure.

The process of construction involved first digging a pit into the ground, then constructing a wooden burial chamber inside that pit, placing the deceased and their grave goods within the chamber, then covering the entire complex with a mound of stones and earth.

The wooden chambers were substantial constructions — the chamber in which the Ice Maiden was found was built of larch logs, the same cold-resistant wood that her coffin was made from.

The chamber walls were lined and insulated, and the coffin — also made from a solid larch trunk — was placed within this prepared space.