The Siberian Times is running a long, detailed story on the return of the Ukok Princess, or "Ice Maiden" to the Altai Republic: "Siberian princess reveals her 2500-year-old tattoos".
'Compared to all tattoos found by archeologists around the world, those on the mummies of the Pazyryk people are the most complicated, and the most beautiful,' said Dr Polosmak.
'More ancient tattoos have been found, like the Ice Man found in the Alps - but he only had lines, not the perfect and highly artistic images one can see on the bodies of the Pazyryks.
'It is a phenomenal level of tattoo art. Incredible.'
I wrote about the Ukok Princess and the archaeology of the Altai earlier this year, based on my visit there last summer: "The anthropologist and the kurgans". The new article has some beautiful line art of the tattoos and also discusses the original excavations of the Ukok Plateau kurgans. My post also touched on much earlier archaeological cultures. It's very relevant to this week's story about the origin of Indo-European languages, which likely included the Pazyryk peoples.
