Breast cancer, stage 4 — this is the diagnosis of a young girl with a deer tattoo who died 2,500 years ago. The disappointing verdict was announced by a group of scientists, paleopathologists, who had studied the mummy of the Princess of Ukok (also known as the Siberian Ice Maiden or Altai Princess, found in 1993 in Altai). But despite the fact that research has been going on for two decades, there is still not much information about this girl. So here, I collected all the facts that scientists have learned over the years.
Today, the mummy of the “Altai Princess” rests in a small dark mausoleum in the National Museum of A.V. Anokhin in Gorno-Altaysk. It is kept in a high-tech sarcophagus, in which a certain temperature and humidity are constantly maintained. Access to the mummy is limited for visitors — only a few days a year. There are many reasons for this — local Altaians are still demanding that the “Altai Princess Ak-Kadyn” be buried, because they believe that by disturbing her eternal peace, people are dooming themselves to catastrophes — earthquakes, floods and other disasters. They believe that the “White Lady” was the guardian of peace and the guardian of the doorway to the afterworld. And since she is not at her resting place — the evil breaks loose outside.
Photo: www.siberiantimes.com
Well, I was allowed to look at one of the most famous mummies in the world. Under a glass designed to look like an ice shroud, the girl lies in a fetal position, with her legs slightly bent underneath her. She is naked and covered with a cloth with gold ornaments. Her clothes, utensils and other things that were found by archaeologists are stored in Novosibirsk. She was brought to the Museum of Gorno-Altaysk naked, because experts did not recommend dressing the mummy, so it would stay better preserved.
The “Altai Princess”, as journalists called her, was found in 1993, when archaeologist Natalya Polosmak took on researching the already plundered Pazyryk barrow (burial mound) on the Ukok plateau in the Ak-Alakh River valley. Her colleagues were rather skeptical about the choice of location, but almost immediately under the upper burial site, Natalya’s group discovered an older grave with an ice lens, in which the shape of a human body was clearly seen.
Photo: www.scfh.ru
It was a fantastic scientific find and a priceless discovery! Permafrost has perfectly preserved everything that time easily destroys: clothes, fabrics and skin. Groundwater, probably from melted snow, penetrated into the grave and froze for centuries. I could compare this girl to a fairy princess lying in an ice coffin, but the body of the Altai Princess, before being buried, was embalmed, the internal cavities were cleaned, the brain and muscles were replaced with chopped herbs, and then the body was covered with a mercury mixture. The whole process probably took three months. Before the burial, the mummy was treated in an unusual way: the body was seated like a doll and moved around many times. The Pazyryks (an ancient Siberian people) believed in the afterlife.
Archaeologists gently melted the ice, quickly removed the mummy from the wooden sarcophagus made of larch and took it by special-purpose helicopter to the Novosibirsk Academic Centre. The mummy was returned to Gorno-Altaysk from the museum of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) only in 2012. For more than twenty years, it has been studied by many scientists — genetics, paleopathologists, archaeologists, historians, dendrochronologists, and facial reconstruction specialists.
According to a DNA test, the girl belonged to the Finno-Ugric type of Caucasian (Europid) peoples. It turned out that the quality of DNA material was so good that the Altai Princess could even be cloned if needed. With the help of MRI screening, paleopathologists found a tumor with metastases, so the diagnosis was certain and beyond doubt. The "White Lady" had a severe illness that led to her death. It was suggested that, during the rituals, the girl inhaled vapors of mercury and copper, which would hardly have led to death but could have caused serious health problems. To get rid of the pain, the girl probably inhaled cannabis vapors, and she may have lost consciousness during the last few months. She could mumble something incoherent, and her tribesmen could mistake it for the voices of dead ancestors, spirits or gods.
Also, scientists say the Altai Princess suffered from osteomyelitis in her childhood. Cancer was killing the Siberian Ice Maiden slowly; she probably suffered from severe pain and fainting. A few months before her death, the girl probably fell off her horse and received three head injuries. After that, she could never get back up.
When the facial reconstruction specialists recreated her face, it turned out that the girl with the deer tattoo was not very beautiful; her facial features were pretty massive and her jaw stuck out far from her face. By the standards of our time, she was rather ugly, but the scientists call it “the phenomenon of ugliness.” Ancient people with anthropological deviations were often considered “the chosen ones” by gods or spirits. The girl was quite tall — about 170 cm tall. The restored appearance is only 75% accurate. For a more accurate reconstruction, there were not enough bone fragments — the ice deformed the girl’s skull, and one of the nasal bones was also lost.
Photo: www.praeparator.ch
She really was not a princess: nothing shows that she was of noble birth. The barrow in which she was buried was quite modest, in comparison with the burials of the Pazyryk nobility. In addition, her grave was far from the tribal burial site, which could mean that she was a woman who vowed celibacy. However, she was dressed quite expensively — in a shirt made of white Indian silk with a belt made of wool threads. She wore a wine-colored warm skirt, warm socks made of felt, and she was covered with a marmot coat. Near her arm, archaeologists found a silver mirror with a picture of a deer and a scattering of pearl beads. Her neck was decorated with a torc with figures of gilded leopards. On the White Lady’s bald head, she wore a wig with a complicated hairstyle, almost 90 cm high, made from the hair of a horse’s tail. It was decorated with lots of wooden decorations covered with gold foil and a bronze hairpin shaped like a deer. Nobody knows whether women had to shave their hair in those times, or if it was just a funeral ritual.
The large amount of gold jewelry made anthropologists think that the Pazyryks were “sun worshippers” and gold was a symbol of the Sun. The girl with the deer tattoo obviously had a high status in the Pazyryk society, most likely she was a member of an ancient cult, “the chosen one of the spirit” or a shaman.
On the girl’s belt, there were marble prayer beads with a tassel. In the folds of her skirt, archaeologists found a censer with coriander seeds. All these attributes show that she performed some religious acts, possibly Zoroastrian.
And the most important thing. Four tattoos can clearly br seen on the mummy: sacred Altai ibexes and rams and a snow leopard; they were made with a needle and soot on both hands from the shoulders to the fingertips. The largest of them, on the left hand, is the deer with the predatory beak of a griffin and the horns of an Altai ibex. The skin of the right arm was probably also tattooed, but was not preserved. The tattoo on the girl’s shoulder is a symbol of belonging to a particular tribe, maybe a kind of personal identification, maybe it was part of the initiation rituals and had a mythological and sacred meaning.
Right next to the “Altai Princess”, they found the remains of six saddles and horses decorated for a journey to the afterworld, and a lot of household items — clay vessels and argali horns (Mongolian wild sheep), weapons and jewelry. She was guarded by a man buried above her grave. The warrior “escorting” the princess to the afterlife was killed by a blunt object hitting the back of his head. He was also tattooed from head to toe; his long red hair was braided. It is unknown whether he belonged the Princess’s tribe, but similar tattoos make us think that. It is absolutely clear that they both belonged to the same era — the end of the 4th century BC.
The museum hall where the Altai Princess found her temporary home was designed as if visitors were participating in the funeral procession. But the visitors do not feel overwhelmed there. They feel curiosity and want answers to many questions. At least one: Who was the Girl with the Deer Tattoo?
The schedule of visits to the mummy in the museum is here
The Princess of Ukok is kept at the National Museum of the Republic of Altai named after A. V. Anokhin in Gorno-Altaysk. The museum address is 46 Choros-Gurkina Street.
Yes, but only on selected days. The museum publishes a special annual schedule for the display of the mummy. In 2026, the official viewing time is from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the listed dates.
The museum says the mummy is displayed according to a special schedule that takes into account professional and ethical standards, as well as the interests and beliefs of the Indigenous people of the Republic of Altai. The museum also mentions traditional Altai ideas about lunar phases and “black moon” days in the explanation of the schedule.
The burial was found in 1993 at the Ak-Alakha-3 burial ground on the Ukok Plateau. The publication of Science First Hand, a science journal of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, describes it as an untouched frozen burial with the mummy of a young woman and a set of grave goods.
The museum identifies the mummy as a woman of the Pazyryk culture, dating her to the 6th–2nd centuries BC.
The museum explains that the natural and climatic conditions of the Ukok Plateau helped preserve burial structures. Ice lenses formed in some mounds, naturally conserving organic materials, as well as some human and horse mummies.
The museum states that when the mummy is displayed, photography and video recording with flash or additional lighting are prohibited.
The Four Seasons of Russia project is supported by the Russian Geographical Society www.rgo.ru
A visit to the National Museum of A.V. Anokhin in Gorno-Altaysk is recommended by the Russian Geographical Society.
The host tour operator in Altai, LB Tour, can help you see Altai, learn about local traditions and plan an adventure.
You can see the photo report about Altai Krai and Gorny Altai here.
Also read about Altai:
The most beautiful places in Altai
The most beautiful places of the Altai Mountains
A female Blacksmith: The Mother-anvil
Karakol Valley: Protected by Spirits
Looking for a snow leopard
Translation: Irina Romanova, Instagram: @astrabella1
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