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'''Natalia Viktorovna Polosmak''' ({{lang-ru|Наталья Викторовна Полосьмак}}; born 12 September 1956) is a [[Russia]]n archaeologist specialising in the study of early Metal Age [[Eurasia]]n [[nomad]]s, especially those known as the [[Pazyryk culture|Pazyryk]] Culture, an ancient people, often glossed as "Scythian," who lived in the [[Altay Mountains]] in [[Siberia]]n [[Russia]]. She is best known for her discovery and analysis of the [[Siberian Ice Maiden|Ice Maiden]] [[mummy]] which is now the focus of an [[ethnic group|ethnic]] [[politics|political]] debate between Russian scientists and the indigenous Altay people.

==Work==
[[File:Mummy of the Ukok Princess.jpg|thumb|[[Siberian Ice Maiden]] [[mummy]] - 5th century [[Common era|BCE]]]]
In 1993, Polosmak was conducting archaeological reconnaissance of the high and barren [[Ukok Plateau]] when she discovered a spectacular archaeological find; a female [[Siberian Ice Maiden|mummy]] frozen in [[permafrost]] which she associated with the [[Pazyryk culture|Pazyryk]] on the basis of intact clothing remaining on the well-preserved corpse.<ref>{{cite web
|year=
|month=
|url=http://ambal.archaeology.nsc.ru/gen-i/Editions/Electronical/Bulletens/Herald/Vol1/Chapter7/Pol4.htm
|title=The First Report on a Burial of a Noble Pazyryk Woman on the Ukok Plateau
|publisher=
|accessdate=2007-12-01
}}</ref> The Pazyryk were an Iron Age people who lived in the [[Altay Mountains]] and on the Ukok Plateau. Many tomb mounds (kurgans) have been found in the area and have been associated with the [[Pazyryk culture]]; a group that closely resembled that of the legendary [[Scythia]]n people to the west.<ref name="atlas">{{cite book
| first=Paul G.
| last= Bahn
| year=2000
| title=The Atlas of World Geology
| edition=
| publisher=Checkmark Books
| location=New York
| pages= 128
| isbn= 0-8160-4051-6}}</ref> The term ''[[kurgan]]'' is in general usage to describe the [[tumulus|barrow]] [[burial]]s found in the area. [[Excavation (archaeology)|Excavations]] of this site yielded fascinating archaeological [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/768
|title=Golden Mountains of Altai
|publisher=UNESCO
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}
</ref>

This famous find by Natalia Polosmak is known as the Ice Maiden.<ref name="nova">{{cite web
|author=Natalia V. Polosmak
|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html
|title=Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden
|publisher=PBS - NOVA
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}
</ref><ref name="hermitage"/> She discovered the mummy in an ancient, and previously undisturbed, burial [[mound]]. The mummy was unusual in that it was a woman interred with full ceremonial honors; a rare distinction for a woman at that time. The mummy was intricately [[tattoo]]ed and is estimated to date back to the 5th century BCE. She was beautifully dressed with a black felt headdress which was found intact and decorated with figures that indicated her high social status. She wore a necklace of wooden camels and high boots of leather. Her dress was of woven camel hair and sheep's wool with braided tassels and colored red with insect dye.<ref name="nova"/><ref name="mnsu">{{cite web
|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/polosmak_natalia.html
|title=Natalia Polosmak
|publisher=
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}
</ref> More tattooed mummies (c. 300 BC) were also extracted from the permafrost at the site.<ref name="hermitage">{{cite web
|url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_7.html
|title=Prehistoric Art - Early Nomads of the Altaic Region
|publisher=The Hermitage Museum
|accessdate=2007-07-31
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.mmedia.nsu.ru/museum/Data/obj543/ENGLISH_INTERFACE_COLLECTION2.htm
|title=Bronze collect at Novosibirsk State University - including Pazyryk
|publisher=
|accessdate=2006-11-30
}}</ref>

While Polosmak and her team were excavating the site and [[defrost]]ing the artifacts with water from a nearby lake heated with blow torches, [[rumor]]s circulated among the indigenous Ukok people that disturbing the dead would have dire consequences. The engine of the [[helicopter]] that Polosmak used to fly the remains of the maiden to Russia failed, resulting in an [[emergency landing]] and some damage to the Ice Maiden for lack of [[refrigeration]]. This was taken as a sign that the maiden did not like being disturbed.<ref name="nova"/> An [[earthquake]] which occurred in the Altay in September 2003 was also seen as bad fortune linked to disturbing the dead.<ref name="pravda"/>

==Political Controversy==
From the beginning, there was controversy over the ownership of the Ice Maiden and other archaeological finds which were found just within a disputed strip of land between Russia and China and were moved by Polosmak and Russian officials to [[Novosibirsk]] and [[Moscow]] for proper, scientific research under controlled laboratory conditions.<ref>{{cite web
|author=Leigh Fenly
|date=8 December 2004
|url=http://www.archaeologynews.org/link.asp?ID=19703&Title=THREADS%20of%20old
|title=Archaeology News
|publisher=
|accessdate=2007-11-27
}}
</ref> Modern [[forensic science|forensics]] studies conducted by the Moscow Police and the Russian Federal Security Bureau determined that the Ice Maiden is "a clear-cut representative of the [[Caucasian race]] with no typically [[Mongols|Mongolian]] features".<ref name="rich"/> The indigenous residents of this area, known as the [[Altai Republic|Altay Republic]], demanded the return of the burial artifacts from their [[Russia]]n locations, claiming the ancient remains should never have been disturbed and that they belong at the site where they were found.<ref name="pravda">{{cite web
|author=
|date=21 February 2005
|url=http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/14995_mummy.html
|title=Minor nationality of Russia demands the return of "Princess of Ukok"
|publisher=Pravda
|accessdate=2007-11-27
}}
</ref>

Rima Eriknova, a native Altayan and Director of the Altay Regional Museum in [[Gorno-Altaysk]], a leader of the group that has called for the return of the artifacts, said she was offended that the site was excavated and valuable artifacts, including the mummy, removed without the knowledge of or permission from local people in nearby villages. She believes that the Ice Maiden belongs to the people of Altay and that Russian forensic findings are suspect and an attempt to erase local heritage. She has been quoted as saying "...they made the Ice Maiden completely European. But, in fact, she also has Mongolian features. They said she does not belong to our culture."<ref name="rich"/>

This controversy results from conflicting elements: scientific evidence provided by [[genetics]] regarding the Ice Maiden's [[genotype]] that suggest she was not an [[ancestor]] of the people now living there versus the claim of the indigenous Altayans that the mummy is Altayan because she was found in the Altay and is, thus, part of their [[cultural heritage|heritage]]; scientific findings having no bearing on the matter from their point of view.<ref>{{cite book
|author= Agnieszka Halemba
|year=2006
|month=
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1THfy3BCuPsC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=natalia+polosmak#PPA19,M1
|title=The Telengits of Southern Siberia
|publisher=Routledge
|accessdate=2007-11-28
|pages= 19
|isbn= 978-0-415-36000-5
}}</ref>

The artifacts have not been returned to the Altay and a ban has been instituted, specifically excluding Russian archaeologists, including Polosmak, from the excavated grave-sites on the Ukok Plateau. Polosmak has expressed her pain regarding this ban since, in the years following the discovery of the "Ice Maiden," she had made the area and her archaeological studies there her life's work.<ref name="rich">{{cite web
|author=Edward P. Rich
|year=2001
|month=
|url=http://www.whoosh.org/issue61/rich3.html#wild
|title=Archaeology in Support of Profs. Sergei I. Rudenko, Vychesalav I. Molodin, and Natalia Polosmak
|publisher=
|accessdate=2007-11-27
}}
</ref>

==Articles by Polosmak==
*[http://ambal.archaeology.nsc.ru/gen-i/Editions/Electronical/Bulletens/Herald/Vol1/Chapter7/Pol4.htm The First Report on a Burial of a Noble Pazyryk Woman on the Ukok Plateau]
*[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V81-3YB51F6-J&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1995&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1b3eab5538a9e7ed16a8f595c0d3680e The frozen tombs of the Scythians]

==See also==
*[[Tarim mummies]]
*[[Pazyryk culture]]
*[[Siberian Ice Maiden]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html PBS interview of Polosmak]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/icemummies/unquiet.html PBS Website on Ice Mummies]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polosmak, Natalia}}
[[Category:Russian archaeologists]]
[[Category:Ethnographers]]
[[Category:Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Altai Mountains]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1956 births]]

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