No, The Siberian Ice Maiden Is Not A Man
I wouldn’t trust a sex estimate of a skeleton that was just 16 years old, but it appears that archaeologists used artifacts to back this up. In that sense, it is not surprising that a DNA test came back with a biological sex that was different than the osteological assessment of the teenager. The DNA testing, headed by A.S. Pilipenko, is summarized here. The researchers found that the juvenile was male and that he was related to the adult male in the other burial in the mound, although they were not biologically father and son. The differences in artifacts and hairstyles can easily be explained by the culture’s differential treatment of subadults rather than different sexes or genders — recent studies in the bioarchaeology of childhood suggest that it is not unusual cross-culturally for children to have differing social statuses or presentations compared to adults, and this extends into burial treatment quite often.
This means, then, that the sex of the Ice Maiden is not in question, even though that appears from various archaeological news sites I haunt to be the initial interpretation — largely based on the inclusion of the reconstruction of the now-known-to-be-male individual from Ak-Alakha-1, Mound 1, Burial 2, which looks like a woman in her early 30s with a tattoo unique to the Ice Maiden. Siberian Times has recently clarified their reporting to be more specific about which mound/burial is being discussed. Nevertheless, due to the immediate and widespread confusion about the reconstruction, I’m hoping this clarifies the subject further.