Natalia Polosmak - Politics

Politics

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 removed by Polosmak and Russian officials to Novosibirsk and Moscow for research. Modern forensics by the Moscow Police and the KGB determined that the Ice Maiden is "a clear-cut representative of the Caucasian race with no typically Mongolian features". The residents of this area, known as the Altay Republic, demanded the return of the burial artifacts from their Russian locations, claiming the ancient remains should never have been disturbed and that they belong at the site where they were found.

Rima Eriknova, a native Altayan and director of the Altay Regional Museum in Gorno-Altaysk, a leader of the group that called for the return of the artifacts said she was offended that the area was excavated and the valuable artifacts removed without the knowledge of or permission from the local people in the 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 the local heritage. She has been quoted as saying "...they made the Ice Maiden completely European. But in fact she has also Mongolian features. They said, she does not belong to our culture."

The issue results from conflicting elements. The scientific evidence provided by genetics regarding the Ice Maiden's genotype or phenotype that suggest she was not an ancestor of the people now living there, and the claim of the Altayans that the mummy is Altayan because she was found in Altay and is part of their heritage, scientific findings having no bearing on the matter from their point of view.

The artifacts have not been returned but a ban has been put in place specifically excluding Russian archaeologists from the excavated gravesites on the Ukok Plateau. It is now off limits to Polosmak. Polosmak has expressed her hurt regarding this ban. In the years since the discovery of the "Ice Maiden" she had made the area and her findings there her life's work.