Mortal Delight. SR Finds the Murderer

N. V. Polosmak, V. Р. Trunova

Archeologists of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS discovered "frozen" graves dating back to the end of the IV-beginning of the III century B. C. at the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Republic in the 1990s (Polosmak, 1994, 2001; Molodin, 2001). These unique sepultures refer to the Pazyryk culture, which became famous owing to the "frozen" grave phenomenon. The essence of this phenomenon is preservation of the graves with all contents, sometimes including mummies of people and organic objects, inside thick ancient ice. This process was facilitated by both severe climatic conditions of Gorny Altai (Altai Mountains) and specific features of the burial ceremony of these ancient people (for more details, see: Polosmak, 2001). In contrast to the known "tsar" burial mounds (Rudenko, 1953, 1964), the ancient graves at the Ukok Plateau were not harassed by robbers and were discovered in an almost intact form. The well-preserved hair and nails of buried people, as well as the hair, tails, and manes of horses buried in the same grave should be noted among numerous amazing findings.

Since ancient times, people have paid special attention to hair and nails. There are numerous associated taboos and superstitious beliefs. These particles of the human body aroused a kind of mythology. In many traditional cultures, the combed-out hair and cut-off nails were collected during

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