Siberian scientist discovered a 2,500 year old princess, or shaman, suffered from breast cancer and smoked marijuana to deal with the illness, according to the Siberian Times.
The mummified body of the female, who was around 25 years old when she died and was mummified, was preserved in ice in an elaborate grave in the Altai Mountains where east-central Asia, Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together.
The woman's body was also covered in unique tattoos, the scientist discovered, the Siberian Times reported.
The MRI was conducted in Novosibirsk by academics Andrey Letyagin and Andrey Savelov, according to the Siberian Times.
"I am quite sure in the diagnosis - she had cancer. She was extremely emaciated. Given her rather high rank in society and the information scientists obtained studying mummies of elite Pazyryks, I do not have any other explanation of her state. Only cancer could have such impact," said Dr. Letyagin.
The scan showed that the 'princess' suffered from osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone or bone marrow, from the age of childhood or adolescence and on, the Siberian Times reported.
She used marijuana to cope with the symptoms of her illnesses, and this, the experts believe, gave her peers the impression she had an "altered state of mind" and could communicate with the spirits, according to the Siberian Times.
Some of the items found in her burial chamber included a cosmetics bag, three horses (back then, one would have suggested a decent burial), a bag of marijuana, and expensive and fashionable clothing, for those times, the Siberian Times reported.
According to the experts who reported the findings, "She was buried in the middle of June, according to the last feed that was found in the stomachs of horses buried alongside her," leaving scientists to think that she died in January or even March.
Before dying, she was on bedrest for months after suffering some type of fall, her injuries told experts, according to the Siberian Times.
"When she was a little over 20 years old, she became ill with another serious disease - breast cancer. It painfully destroyed her' over perhaps five years," according to a summary of the findings by archeologist Professor Natalia Polosmak, who first found the human remains, the Siberian Times reported.
This instance is allegedly the first known recorded instance such a diagnosis has been made on a mummified ancient woman whose remains were preserved, frozen for more than two millenniums, according to the Siberian Times.
