ICE MAIDEN In Siberia in 1993, Natalia Polosmak made a huge discovery, one that was admired and displayed around the world. Looking for a place to obtain some information on the past tribes and civilization, she was directed to a plateau, on Alti land. Her and here crew then began digging, after weeks of digging then came across some stones and the process of recovering the fossils and artifacts to be researched and study began.
With the discovery of the tomb the researchers then removed the material very slowly and thawed the coffin very carefully. After the thawing process they had discovered a skeleton, six horses, and a vessel of food. With these artifacts the researches knew they had discovered something great. But once the ice was removed the artifacts began to decay so the material was then flown quickly to Natalia's institute were it was put in a freezer.
Princess Ukok/Princess of the Altai: A mummy that ...
Horse and carriage
HorsesLittle after the artifacts were put in the freezer they began to go fungi so it was transferred to Moscow were the artifacts were soaked in chemicals. This was one of the new discoveries in preservation. With the artifacts in tact the research began. The artifacts were well preserved for it had been 23 centuries since the death of this maiden. For this would not be if not for a man named Ridenco who in 1920 used stone to reflect the sun. Which left the artifacts lying frozen and preserved. The body still had flesh on it, and the clothes were in very good condition only needing little touch ups. The clothes were very beautiful; she had a blouse from India. Then lying on here head was a headdress that said ice maiden for that was what she was then called. At the time a headdress symbolized place in society and hers was very large for she was an important person in society. Hers had symbolized the tree of life.
The horses were found to be sacrificed for they had holes in their skulls. This showed that the maiden was definitely an important person in society in her time. The horses were also used to find the time of year the maiden died. The horses found larva on the horses, by the development of the larva it was found that she was buried during the second half of June. The food that was in the tomb symbolized here last meal, and also lied everyday goods. Randolf a ferenzic expert who was normal involved in criminal forensics researched the age of death. By studying the skull he discovered the ice maiden died at the age of 20 to 30 years of age. She probably died at the age of 25. With the use of the DNA/RNA a new weapon in finding origins by comparing tissue, the maiden was found to be European.
After research was complete the artifacts were put in a museum. Something the Alti believed as being wrong. They believed it was related to there culture but the ice maiden was not put back in the ground it was put in a museum, this made the Alti mad but that is were it lies today and that is were it will stay.
The video related greatly to the material that we have gone over in class, such as the methods in recovering data on an artifact. The things the video left out were filled in by information that had been read in the book such as the time the archaeologists spend in the lab. There was also the many different ways of finding the age of the artifacts, like in the movie carbon dating was used. In chapter 2 it gives a detailed description of the many different ways dates can be found, and the process and time archaeologists go through to find information on centuries of the past.
Reaction-I thought the movie was rather boring, but it gave me a better perspective of how archaeologists go about finding so much information about a artifact that is so old. The movie went very well with chapter two in the book. By the use of carbon dating, DNA, and studying a skull to find the age a person died at. All this was new to me, I didn't know you could narrow down time of a horses death to a half month by obtaining a piece of larva that was obtained by the horse. When the horse had died 23 centuries ago. The movie gave me a better idea of how the artifacts looked and the process of carefully removing ice and stone without destruction the artifact.
Alti with Xena
Carbon dating
Alti battling Xena and Gabrielle as they use the p...