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Ice Maiden

Mixed Medium Mythology posted on Jun 03, 2011
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Description


The most famous undisturbed Pazyryk burial so far recovered is the "Ice Maiden" found by archaeologist Natalia Polosmak in 1993, a rare example of a single woman given a full ceremonial wooden chamber-tomb in the 5th century BC, accompanied by six horses. [1] She had been buried over 2,400 years ago in a casket fashioned from the hollowed-out trunk of a larch tree. On the outside of the casket were stylized images of deer and snow leopards carved in leather. Shortly after burial the grave had apparently been flooded by freezing rain and the entire contents of the burial chamber had remained frozen in permafrost. Six horses wearing elaborate harnesses had been sacrificed and lay on the logs which formed the roof of the burial chamber. The maiden's well-preserved body, carefully embalmed with peat and bark, was arranged to lie on her side as if asleep. She was young; her hair was still blonde; she had been 5 feet 6 inches tall. Even the animal style tattoos were preserved on her pale skin: creatures with horns that develop into flowered forms. Her coffin was made large enough to accommodate the high felt headdress she was wearing, which had 15 gilded wooden birds sewn to it. On a gold buckle retrieved from another tomb, a similar woman's headdress intertwined with branches of the tree of life are depicted. Her blouse was originally thought to be made of wild "tussah" silk but closer examination of the fibers indicate the material is not Chinese but was a wild silk which came from somewhere else, perhaps India.[4] She was clad in a long crimson woolen skirt and white felt stockings. Near her coffin was a vessel made of yak horn, and dishes containing gifts of coriander seeds: all of which suggest that the Pazyryk trade routes stretched across vast areas of Iran. Similar dishes in other tombs were thought to have held Cannabis sativa, confirming a practice described by Herodotus [1] but after tests the mixture was found to be coriander seeds, probably used to disguise the smell of the body. Two years after the discovery of the "Ice Maiden" Dr. Polosmak's husband, Vyacheslav Molodin, found a frozen man, elaborately tattooed with an elk, with two long braids that reached to his waist, buried with his weapons. from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazyryk_burials#Ice_Maiden I'd rather paint her in life though ;) She is also an optical illusion. Do you see her animal totems/familiars too? Digital painting with one fractal and many filters. Done in Photoshop and Paintshop. Thank you for looking!

Comments (6)


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2121

6:06PM | Fri, 03 June 2011

Oh my friend, this is just so stunning and very beautiful..it really brings her past to life..thank you :-)

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Bossie_Boots

6:11PM | Fri, 03 June 2011

Wow that is really interesting thanks for sharing and your image is incredible !!

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Faemike55

6:58PM | Fri, 03 June 2011

Excellent interepretation of the maiden

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odile

12:47AM | Sat, 04 June 2011

This is fascinating. You did a great job here, I like the deer, so exactly reproduced. She must have been a woman of power. Or maybe in the time of the kurgans, when the scyths were roaming Central Asia , the time before the Abrahamic religions took over, were women treated fairly,equally.

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Black Rain

5:25PM | Sat, 04 June 2011

amazing and fascinating image !

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r6y6a6n6

3:14PM | Fri, 10 June 2011

Love this image exellent render


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