Girl Frozen For 500 Years Unearthed In South America

The Inca Ice maiden, Mummy Juanita, who was killed as an offering to the Inca gods sometimes between 1440 and 1450 in Inca empire was discovered on Mount Ampato in Southern Peru in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and Miguel Zarate. Her father was said to have presented her to the emperor as a gift of sacrifice to the empire to uphold the tradition of the sacrifices being made to god of the mountain in Inca empire.

Fresh frozen body of Juanita as it was discovered

During and expedition to Mount Ampato (about 200,800 ft), Reinhard and Zarate discovered a bundle inside the crater containing a frozen body of a young girl between the ages of 13 and 15 years.

Studies carried out on the body by means of a virtual autopsy at the John Hopkins Hospital in U.S.A revealed however that prior to her death, she was 1.40meters tall. She had suffered a lung infection before the sacrifice and analysis of her stomach contents revealed that she ate a meal of vegetables 6-8 hours before she died. Her internal organs remained as it were before she died with blood still present in her heart.

Equally, she was wrapped in a brightly coloured burial tapestry before the sacrificial ceremony. Her colourful garments were from the finest textiles in the Inca capital of Cuzco. She was said to have come from the noble Cuzco family.

Juanita's body is currently on display at in the Museum of Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria in Peru.