New Tomb
for ‘Altai Princess’ to be Built in Siberia
 |
RIA Novosti Photo |
NOVOSIBIRSK
(RIA Novosti) — A tomb to house the remains of a woman found
after being preserved in ice for 2,500 years will be
built in Siberia’s Altai Republic, the director of a local
museum said on Thursday.
The well-preserved
remains of the woman dubbed the Altai Princess were discovered
in the region by a team led by a Novosibirsk archeologist in
1993 near the Mongolian border, and have been studied at the
Archaeology and Ethnography Institute in Novosibirsk.
Residents
of Altai, where shamanism is still widespread, had repeatedly
called for the body’s return to its homeland, and blamed the
removal for earth tremors and other natural disasters.
However,
Novosibirsk scientists had been reluctant to return the body,
saying local museums did not have the necessary facilities
to preserve it.
"A decision
has been taken to build a sloping building for the mummy, resembling
a burial mound. This will be an extension to the main building
of the national museum" in Gorno-Altaysk, the museum director
said.
The body
will now be housed in a state-of-the-art glass temperature-controlled
case. Construction work should be finished by the end of this
year.
Russian state
natural gas giant Gazprom has contributed about $11 million
to the reconstruction of the museum, and the building of the
tomb and sarcophagus, the head of the republic, Alexander Berdnikov,
said earlier.
Scientists
have no information on the actual history of the Altai Princess,
but DNA tests and facial reconstruction have suggested she
was ethnically European.