Princess Ukok is the name given by journalists and residents of the Altai Republic to the mummy of a woman discovered in 1993 by an archaeological team led by Natalia Polosmak in the Ak-Alakha-3 mound on the Ukok plateau (Altai Republic). This is one of the most significant discoveries of Russian archeology at the end of the 20th century. The mound was a dilapidated monument, which in ancient times they tried to rob. In our time, the monument was destroyed in connection with the construction of border communications. During excavations, archaeologists found that the deck in which the body of the buried was placed was filled with ice. That is why the woman's mummy is well preserved.
Research has shown that the burial belongs to the period of the Altai Pazyryk culture, made in the 5-3 centuries BC. Researchers believe that the people who inhabited at that time genetically were close to the modern Selkups and Uighurs. She died at a young age (about 25 years old) and belonged to the middle strata of Pazyryk society. Well-preserved tattoos were found on the woman's body. Things, household utensils, etc. were also found in the mound. Some residents of Altai, after the discovery of the mummy, began to demand a ban on excavations in Altai and the reburial of the mummy. They stated that the Altaians always knew the place of burial of this woman, allegedly "Princess Kadyn", and worshiped her as the progenitor of the Altai people. However, upon verification, all these facts were not confirmed.
DNA analysis and the skeleton of the princess showed her Indo-European origin, therefore she cannot be the progenitor of the Mongoloid Altaians. Signs on the body, details of the burial indicate that they belonged to the high-level priestly layers of the Scythians inhabiting Central Asia at that time.
Let's find out more about this story!
In 1993, an archaeological expedition of Novosibirsk scientists led by Natalia Polosmak, Candidate of Historical Sciences, who worked on the Ukok mountain plateau near the Chinese border, uncovered three ancient burials. In two of them, the bodies of the buried were remarkably well preserved, given that several thousand years have passed since their death.
One contained the mummified body of a young man, the other contained the mummy of a "princess." According to Anatoly Derevyanko, director of the Novosibirsk Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, this happened due to a coincidence of happy meteorological circumstances for scientists. The graves fell into the conditions of the so-called artificial permafrost. The first snow that fell on them turned into ice the next summer, but did not melt completely, either then or later.
It melted only in 1993, when students-archeologists and border guards from a neighboring outpost, out of curiosity who helped scientists in their free time from service, helped to scatter heavy stones and open the burial buildings.
Promotional video:
Judging by these graves, the Altai of that time (of the so-called Pazyryk culture) dug a rather large hole for their dead. From the inside, they were reinforced with walls made of logs, the floor was lined with black felt, on which ritual objects were placed and the deceased himself in a coffin hollowed out of a thick tree trunk. In professional slang, archaeologists call this coffin a "deck" and a grave a "log house". In fact, it was an underground log house, the last home of the deceased.
Ukok plateau
The Ukok Plateau is one of the most inaccessible natural sites in the south of the Altai Republic. Mongolian uheg - literally an elongated cabinet, drawer; a massive mountain or large flat-topped hill. According to the oral testimony of S. Umurzakov, ukok in Kyrgyz is used for flat-topped mountains, that is, that is, plateaus. V. Sapozhnikov describes the Altai Ukek as follows: “The Ukek snow ridge from the eastern end begins with a flat, horizontally truncated top, like a table; to the west of it stretches a series of sharp peaks, also completely white; between them one can see big snow pits and several glaciers in the headwaters of Allah.
The state borders of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan run along the borders of the plateau. The plateau is located at an altitude of 2,200-2,500 m above sea level, above it, on average, 500-600 meters rise mountain ranges. The maximum absolute mark of the mountain frame of the plateau is the Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola mountain knot (Five sacred peaks), the highest mountain of which, Nairamdal, reaches 4,374 m above sea level. This mountain is the second highest peak in Siberia after Belukha. In Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola, the borders of three states converge - Russia, China and Mongolia. The plateau is known largely thanks to the find of the Novosibirsk archaeologist Natalya Polosmak, who in 1993 in the Ak-Alakha-3 mound discovered a well-preserved mummy, named "Princess Ukok". Recently, the plateau has also been of interest as a site for the proposed construction of the Altai export gas pipeline from Western Siberia to China.
Middle class mummy
It is no longer possible to establish who was the first to call the ancient Altai dug out in 1993 a princess. Academician Anatoly Derevyanko told the RIA Novosti columnist that he was surprised when he first heard about the princess of Ukok. In his conviction, this middle-aged woman was of a very average income, and did not pull the “blue blood” of the then Altai nobility. “She belonged to the middle class at best,” the academician said for clarity.
Male and female mummies went to Novosibirsk, where scientists led by Natalia Polosmak took care of them.
In 1997, Natalya Polosmak defended her doctoral dissertation "Pazyryk culture: Reconstruction of worldview and mythological ideas", where she consistently described male and female Pazyryk costumes, felt, tattoos, features of embalming, funerary dishes and the role of women in Pazyryk society.
Only knowing this, it is possible to fully assess the diplomatic abilities of the husband of Doctor of Sciences Polosmak - Academician Vyacheslav Molodin we transfer part of the collection and the mummy to the Altai Republic. But after studying it!”The academician emphasized at a press conference in Novosibirsk this week.
The woman was buried in a larch crypt at the bottom of the pit. On the outside, her burial deck was decorated with leather appliqués depicting deer. The deck lid was hammered in with round-headed copper nails. At the bottom of the crypt, on top of specially laid out large pebbles and stones, a black felt canopy was laid, sewn from several pieces. The woman was lying on a felt mat, with a pillow under her head, on her side in a sleeping position, and was covered with a fur blanket with gold foil appliqués in the form of floral designs. In the ears of the "Altai princess" were gold hoop earrings, the entire wrist of the deceased was covered with pearls. There are places on Earth covered with a canopy of mystery. Myths and legends are made up about them, ufologists talk about anomalous zones, and people convey strange and eerie stories. In the heart of the Altai mountains, behind high passes and rivers,at the edge of the inhabited world, the Lost Earth is located. Locals call it "Ukok", which sounds like "The Word of Heaven", and believe that here the gates to the higher spiritual world are opened. The plateau gained world fame after the body of a buried Scythian girl was discovered, preserved in an ice lens.
A place with rich pastures, but a very harsh climate (snow happens in July) has been considered sacred since ancient times. Stones with images of revered animals and spirits, petroliglyphs, deer stones - idols left by nomadic tribes, Scythians who lived here for 5 centuries BC, numerous mounds with burials of noble warriors, this is not a complete list of numerous traces of the mighty energy of this land. Recent studies of aerial photography have led to the new discovery of giant drawings - geoglyphs, distinguishable from great heights. Whether it is a message from unknown priests or signs for aliens, no one can say, the earth continues to keep its secrets. After all, it is here, according to legend, that the eastern gates to the mythical Shambhala, the land of gods and heroes, are located, where a beautiful girl left many centuries ago in search of love. Under the canopy of the sacred mountain Ukok Plateau is located in the very south of Altai, under the sacred five-domed mountain Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola, standing at the junction of four borders, Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan and Russia. The plateau is fenced on all sides by mountain ranges, with two passes of the same name Ukok, leading to Kazakhstan and Teply Klyuch to Russia. The rivers Ak-Allah and Kalgut originate on the plateau, giving rise to the Siberian Ob and Irtysh.
The dirt road running from Teply Klyuch to the Ukok pass and crossing the plateau from east to west is controlled by two border outposts - on the Argamdzhi river and on the Ak-Alakha river "Chelyabinsk Cossack". Not far from which, the "Scythian princess" was found. In the past two decades, the Ukok Plateau has come under intense media scrutiny. It all began in the 90s, when archaeologists in one of the mounds in an ice lens found a well-preserved mummy of a young girl, in rich clothes and with a tattoo - the image of griffins - on her shoulder. Versions about who the young maiden was during her lifetime, who immediately received the "title" of Princess Ukok, were put forward the most unexpected and incredible: from the priestess of the Scythians to the messenger of heaven. Which, however,does not prevent the Altaians from considering her their progenitor by the name of Kydym and having their own plans for her further stay on Earth. At the first opportunity, they would drop it back in order to calm the spirit seeking refuge and in this way stop the cataclysms that have recently become more frequent on the Altai land - from earthquakes to monetization.
Scientists from the Novosibirsk Academgorodok have done a lot of research on the found ancient culture. The discovered facts are simply stunning - the found burials belong to the Scythians, this is what scientists say. All the details of the discovery - both the reconstruction of the appearance of people from the skull, and genetic analyzes, and the peculiarities of burial, characteristic only for the Scythians, and traditional Scythian jewelry, household items - all these little things fit into a single picture and confirm the assumption that in the territory of Altai For a long time, at least 4 thousand years BC, peoples of European appearance lived, that is, the Scythians, the progenitors of the Russians. In the special archaeological literature, the inhabitants of Ukok are sometimes called "Pazyryks". This name comes from the name of the Pazyryk tract,where, back in 1929, material evidence of the existence of an ancient Scythian civilization, the same people who lived in the Black Sea region, were first found.
The finds in Ukok belong to the same material culture, therefore the people who lived in Pazyryk and Ukok are collectively called “Pazyryk people”. But it is important for us that they rather belonged to the Russians than to the Altaians. We will not now dwell in detail on the reasons for the intensified imposition on society of the point of view of the opposite. Most likely, the fact is that now the “history” of Altai is “being written” by publicists, ethnographers and politicians. Representatives of national science do not participate in this "process", but no one listens to their voice. It is unlikely that the burial of the mummy can protect Altai from the echoes of earthquakes that occur on the other side of the globe. After the discovery of the princess, the State Assembly of the Altai Republic adopted a decree banning archaeological research in Gorny Altai, and the Ukok plateau was declared a "rest zone".
On the Leninist path
Scientists have put forward a compelling reason not to give up the mummy. According to Molodin, the safety of the mummy in Novosibirsk was ensured by specialists from the Research Center for Biomedical Technologies of the All-Russian Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (VILAR) of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
These specialists came under the wing of agricultural science in 1992 after the collapse of the Laboratory at the Lenin Mausoleum and had invaluable experience in handling the country's main mummy. Once every two years, according to Molodin, they came to Novosibirsk and treated the "princess" with some well-known drugs, which made her feel great. In the Altai Republic, such conditions for this object of scientific research could not have been created then, says the academician.
Nevertheless, the Gorno-Altai authorities demanded its return.
Premium from the mummy
In 2004, Academician Vyacheslav Molodin and Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalya Polosmak were awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for “Discovery and research of unique complexes of the Pazyr culture of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. on the territory of Gorny Altai.
“State prize in a new format,” Vyacheslav Molodin emphasized in passing at a press conference in Novosibirsk, without specifying this format. And the format, meanwhile, was wonderful.
Previously, state prizes in the amount of 300 thousand rubles were awarded in dozens of nominations and, as a rule, not personally to scientists, but to authors' teams. As a result, each actually got only the laureate's badge and the amount that was enough only to wash this badge properly.
In 2004, for the first time, only three State Prizes in the field of science and technology were awarded, 5 million rubles (about $ 180 thousand at the exchange rate) each, which was already comparable to the money of a Nobel laureate.
In a peculiar way, the "princess of Ukok" thanked her researchers. What could not be said about the head of the RA Committee on Culture Vladimir Konchev.
Judging by his official biography on the website of the Republican Ministry of Culture, in 1999 he found himself in the position of artistic director of the "Altai Boys' Studio" of the children's music school No. 1 in Gorno-Altaysk.
The research results force us to take a fresh look at things related to the history of Eurasia. In fact, we are talking about the discovery of a highly cultured Eurasian civilization, which significantly expands our understanding of the ancient world in general,”said the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who on Monday named the winners of the State Prize at a ceremony in the Kremlin. Vyacheslav Molodin and Natalya Polosmak discovered and investigated unique complexes of the Pazyryk culture of the 6th-3rd centuries BC on the territory of Gorny Altai. On the account of archaeologists - the discovery of Scythian mummies, in particular, the mummy of "Princess Ukok".
By the way, the scientists themselves do not really like this name. Vyacheslav Molodin even once said in an interview with our newspaper that this is not a princess at all, an ordinary woman, and journalists fanned the myth of the princess. The discovery is interesting because it made it possible to learn a lot about the ancestors of the Asian and American peoples. In 1998, UNESCO decided to include the Ukok plateau in the list of World Heritage Sites. Recall that one of the brightest archaeological discoveries of the last century took place in 1990, when burial mounds with “frozen” graves of ancient people were discovered on the Ukok plateau. Numerous objects were found in the burials: larch logs and beds, wooden pillows, decorations carved from cedar, horse harness, parts of weapons, clothing, felt carpets, dishes, dyes, remains of plants and seeds, and much more. Well-preserved human mummies, women and men, have also been found with magnificent tattoos on their shoulders and arms. Frozen in the ice, they lay in full attire: fur coats, felt hats, wigs, woolen pants and skirts, felt stockings, wooden and gold jewelry. To this day, mummies are considered the most valuable finds of Siberian scientists.
Personnel policy of the princess
In the same 2004, the popularity of the mummy from the Ukok plateau reached its maximum. In September 2003, Gorny Altai was shaken by powerful tremors. On the first of them, seismographs on the only one in the republic went off scale for 8 points on the Richter scale and broke. As it turned out later, the magnitude of the earthquake was 7.3, which roughly corresponds to 10 points on the 12-point Richter scale.
The shock was felt 1000 km from the epicenter, in the Novosibirsk Academgorodok, where the scientists were shocked with a force of up to 4 points. Fortunately, there were no victims even in the epicenter, in the Koch-Agach region of the RA.
However, aftershocks, repeated shocks after the main one, continued for an unusually long time. Over the next six months, more than three hundred aftershocks with a force over 3 points and about a thousand weaker occurred in the Koch-Agach region. It became clear to everyone, even a resident of the district, far from esotericism, that it could not do without the anger of ancestors. Someone remembered a princess disturbed by scientists from the Ukok plateau, which was only 150 km from the epicenter of the earthquake.
In the spring of 2004, first in the region, and then in the republic, rallies began demanding that her body be returned to her native mountains. It is highly probable that it was at this time that she received the title of "princess". It is one thing when the spirit of a princess is angry, it is quite another when a representative of the middle class scandals.
In April 2004, the head of the Koch-Agach administration, Auelkhan Dzhatkambaev, collected the signatures of his fellow countrymen demanding to return the "princess" to their homeland and sent them to Leonid Drachevsky, the presidential envoy in the Siberian district.
Plenipotentiary Drachevsky considered the situation requiring his personal intervention. Arriving in the republic, he promised to return the "princess of Ukok" to his homeland for the 250th anniversary of the voluntary entry of Gorny Altai into Russia, which was to be celebrated in 2006. By this time, conditions for the mummy should have been created in the capital of the republic no worse than those of Lenin in Moscow, not to mention Novosibirsk.
This promise, as well as assistance to the victims of the earthquake from the federal budget at the rate of 431 thousand rubles per family, brought down the heat of passions.
Less than six months after that, Vladimir Putin dismissed Leonid Drachevsky from the post of plenipotentiary. For four years he served as deputy chairman of RAO "UES of Russia" and finally dropped out of big Russian politics. Today his position is called - Executive Director of the A. M. Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund.
Nobody built a shelter for princess Ukok in Gorny Altai in the promised year 2006. But this year, Vladimir Konchev returned to the Ministry of Culture of the republic, and already in the rank of minister, and things got off the ground.
Mausoleum of "Gazprom"
“We have reconstructed our national museum and expanded it. They demolished a residential building next to it, resettling its tenants. The room for the mummy is designed like a mausoleum. The mummy itself will lie in the niche of the room, and separately there will be its dummy, reproducing the picture of her burial, says Minister Konchev.
The construction budget, he said, amounted to approximately 750 million rubles, of which more than 700 million were given by Gazprom. Now everything is ready to receive the "princess".
“The log house and the log have already been transported from Novosibirsk, the mummy itself is planned to be delivered by helicopter at the end of August, and the opening of the museum is scheduled“approximately on September 15,”the minister said.
In the Novosibirsk Academgorodok they say that they “don’t mind leaving the princess”. But the tone is clearly irritated. “For some reason, they did not even remember about the second mummy, male, which they found together with the“princess”. Although it is much better preserved. A young man with a red pigtail, all in a tattoo, like some kind of hipster, - said in Akademgorodok.
Well-preserved "Ukok hipster"
Scientists are wrong. The Minister of Culture of the Altai Republic Vladimir Konchev remembers both the "hipster Ukok" and other mummies found in the republic in the thirties and fifties during the excavations of the Pazyryk mounds, which are kept in the Hermitage, and much more that is kept there.
He stated that he would raise the question of returning the unique treasures of Gorno-Altai culture to their homeland. At the opening of the exhibition "Princess Ukok" in the National Museum named after A. V. Anokhin, according to the minister, Valentina Matvienko with a commission of the Federation Council and Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky were invited.
“We intend to agree with the Hermitage on the arrival of an exhibition with our unique exhibits, which are kept in the Hermitage,”.
When asked whether Gorny Altai will seek the return of mummies and other archaeological finds in Gorny Altai from St. Petersburg to their homeland, the minister said: “First, we will agree on the arrival of the exposition, and then we will see. There are unique things there."
Georgy Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director of the Hermitage, commented on the prospect of returning some of the exhibits to Gorny Altai to the RIA Novosti observer.
“I am against the word“return”. It is wrong in this case. It happens that we are asked to "transfer" certain exhibits of the Hermitage, - says Georgy Vilinbakhov.
“People don't understand the consequences of such broadcasts. In the Hermitage, one can see the proportionality of this or that exhibit to the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman and other examples of world culture. And if these exhibits end up where they are asked to be handed over, they will acquire a shtetl character, - believes Georgy Vilinbakhov.
"Are these people ready for the fact that we will give the ancient Egyptian mummies to Egypt, the canvases of the Dutch painters of Holland, France - the impressionists, and so on, and the Hermitage will turn into the Russian Museum or the Tretyakov Gallery, and Russia will lose the treasury of world culture?" - the deputy director of the Hermitage asks a rhetorical question and answers it himself: "This is not even discussed."
The princess's last warning
The "princess of Ukok" also expressed her opinion about what was happening. She gave an unambiguous sign when Minister Konchev was going to a press conference in Novosibirsk this Tuesday.
“I just left the house at four o'clock, and immediately began to shake. 5.6 points! The epicenter in Aktash is approximately the region where we had an earthquake in 2003”.
The minister did not heed the warning. “A paradoxical thing: literally on the border of the Novosibirsk region, it turned out that we were“butted”by a car. I had to call the traffic police,”he admitted.
At the same time, the Gorno-Altai minister did not yet know everything. At the VILAR Research Center of Biomedical Technologies, the safety of the "Princess Ukok" mummy was supervised by two specialists. Now one is in the hospital, the second quit, the institute said.
Return of the princess
In 2012, the “Princess Uuoka” was waited at the airfield in the city of Gorno-Altaysk longer than expected, since the helicopter that brought her from Novosibirsk was delayed for several hours due to bad weather. And finally, the helicopter landed in the airport of the city of Gorno-Altaysk. The helicopter was met by representatives of the authorities, headed by and. about. Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Altai Yuri Antaradonov and museum workers.
Then the mummy was transported by a medical service car to the Anokhin National Museum, which was recently rebuilt. “Princess Ukrka” was placed in a special sarcophagus, which was made for this purpose. The mummy will be stored under special conditions, which will be created by special equipment made in Germany to maintain and control a special temperature and humidity regime.