Zarmina Collection

A 20-something Pazyryk woman was found entombed in ice in the Ukok Plateau of the Altai Mountains, preserved for roughly 2,500 years until archaeologist Nataliya Polosmak's team recovered her in 1993. She was buried with an elaborate headdress, a tattoo, and coriander seeds, probably medicinal. Her coffin was larch, carved with deer. Based on the burial artifacts, she was likely a priestess or shaman. She's now known as the Ukok Princess.

This collection starts there: the geometry of Central and South Asia, from Pazyryk textile patterns to Mughal jaali screens (the intricate latticed facades designed to let in air and diffuse light while maintaining coverage) to the ornate headdress traditions of Turkmen brides. Taxila, the ancient city in modern-day Pakistan that hosted one of the world's first universities, drawing students across the ancient world for philosophy, medicine, and political science, shows up here too, in the architecture.

The region has been a crossroads for most of recorded history. The jewelry reflects that.