Eerie mummy wearing fur underwear found frozen in -60C Siberian permafrost
A MUMMIFIED woman so perfectly preserved she still has her undies on has been found in Siberia.
Believed to date from the mid-1800s, the female was found frozen in ice wearing foal-skin stockings and a Christian cross on her chest.
She was discovered in a sand grave in Siberia's Yakutia region, near the Russian Arctic, where temperatures can fall below -60C.
The scientist who found the mummy, Dr Elena Solovyova, said the woman was inadvertently mummified by the region's icy temperatures.
"Her soft tissues have preserved very well," said Dr Solovyova, from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"This was natural mummification."
The cross and clothing on the woman scotched a theory that archaeologists had found the first Russian settlement in this region.
Called Lensky Ostrog, the mysterious settlement was built in the 1630s as part of the conquest of Siberia.
Scientists now believe the site of the burial cannot be this early fortress because the woman dates to the 19th century.
They also say she is ethnic Yakut, a local woman from the largest and coldest region of Siberia, not Russian, and that some of her clothing was machine-made.
"Maybe she was buried in winter and frozen," Dr Solovyova said.
"The lower part of her clothes are preserved.
"These were underwear made of fur, traditional Yakutian clothing, plus stockings up to the hips, made of the skin of a foal, with fur inside."
On her leather stockings were attached "torbasa", traditional Yakutian soft boots, which also had fur inside, made of foal or cow skin.
Scientists had planned to remove and take away the woman's skull for further research.
However, after examining the well-preserved remains they decided not to for ethical reasons.
Dr Solovyova said: "The woman was mummified, not just scattered bones.
"I just could not bring myself to separate her head from the body."
The permafrost of Siberia is famed for preserving ancient humans and creatures like mammoths for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Much of the region stays icy year-round, creating the perfect environment for natural mummies.
Earlier this month, researchers found perfectly preserved lion cubs that died 44,000 years ago in Siberian permafrost.
One starved to death and the other may have been crushed by falling rocks, both having possibly been abandoned by their mothers.
Who were the Ancient North Siberians?
Here's what you need to know about the newly discovered group
- The Ancient North Siberians are a newly discovered group of ancient people who lived in modern day Russia around 30,000 years ago
- They would have lived in extreme Ice Age conditions but it would have been a lot warmer than you would assume as it was towards the end of the Ice Age
- Their habitat would have been a grassy open landscape and they would have hunted big animals like mammoths, bison and woolly rhinos
- They also would have lived alongside lions, horses and wolves
- They are related to a later group of Paleosiberians who diverged and interbred to become the group of people who travelled across from Siberia to North America to become the first Native Americans
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In other news, a Siberian puppy frozen 14,300 years was found "perfectly preserved" and may have been a pet.
The world's "oldest animal" was recently revealed by ancient fat from a 558million-year-old Russian fossil.
And, a mysterious 520million-year-old sea monster with tentacles coming out of its mouth has been discovered.
What do you make of this discovery? Let us know in the comments!
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