Archaeologists managed to find the mummy of the “polar princess” in the Ob basin, which has been perfectly preserved in the permafrost. The remains, which have lain under the snow for about nine hundred years, make it possible to get an idea of what the ancient inhabitant of the Polar region looked like.
The find was dated to the XII century - it is the only one in the world. The remains of three dozen men and children and one woman in permafrost conditions have been perfectly preserved - both eyelashes, hair, and even skin, as well as the fur in which they were wrapped.
Under the soil, which did not thaw for nine centuries, and under the snow in the Urals region, bronze jewelry was found, which gave the skin of the “princess” a greenish tint: the woman's body was mummified with copper.
No other female burials were found - only children and men - a total of about three dozen. According to the assumptions of archaeologists, this may indicate that the woman had a high social status during her lifetime.
According to researchers, the woman died at the age of about 55 (for the XII century this age is venerable), while retaining almost all of her teeth and thick hair. The woman was buried with bronze jewelry and a reindeer fur hat. The body was wrapped in birch bark. During her lifetime, a woman's height was about 155 centimeters.
The woman belonged to a tribe that fished in northern rivers and hunted. In that distant historical period, just like nowadays, the territory in the Ob basin between Labytnangy and Salekhard was of little use for life. As historians note, practically nothing is known about this tribe, except for the funeral rite. At present, archaeologists have enlisted the support of their South Korean colleagues and intend to conduct a DNA analysis, if it is possible to isolate it from tissues preserved in the permafrost. Only after the analysis will scientists be able to say something more definite about the "polar princess".
