Overview
Momia Juanita (Spanish for "Mummy Juanita"), also known as the Lady of Ampato, is the well-preserved frozen body of a girl from the Inca Empire who was killed as a human sacrifice to the Inca gods sometime between 1440 and 1480, when she was approximately 12–15 years old. She was discovered on the dormant stratovolcano Mount Ampato (part of the Andes cordillera in southern Peru) in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner, Miguel Zárate. Another of her nicknames, Ice Maiden, derives from the cold conditions and freezing temperatures that preserved her body on Mount Ampato. Juanita has been on display in the Catholic University of Santa María's Museum of Andean Sanctuaries (Museo Santuarios Andinos) in Arequipa, Peru almost continuously since 1996, and was displayed on a tour in Japan in 1999.
In 1995, Time magazine chose her as one of the world's top ten discoveries. Between May and June 1996, she was exhibited in the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., in a specially acclimatized conservation display unit. In its June 1996 issue, National Geographic included an article dedicated to the discovery of Juanita.
Discovery
The girl who became known as Juanita was discovered in September 1995 during an ascent of Mount Ampato, a volcano in the Andes of southern Peru. While investigating an Inca ceremonial site near the summit, anthropologist Johan Reinhard and Peruvian mountaineer Miguel Zárate found a burial bundle in a crater below. Ice melt and erosion had exposed the site, causing the bundle to fall from its original location on the mountain.
Condition and preservation
Juanita was discovered almost entirely frozen on Mount Ampato. Freezing temperatures at high altitude preserved her body in exceptional condition, including her internal organs, hair, blood, skin, and stomach contents. Unlike many archaeological human remains, Juanita was preserved primarily by freezing rather than desiccation. The survival of soft tissues and internal organs allowed researchers to study her diet, health, genetic ancestry, and injuries in unusual detail. Because of the condition of her remains, Juanita has been described as one of the best-preserved mummies from the Andes.
Associated objects and clothing
They also found many items that had been left as offerings to the Inca gods including llama bones, small figurines and pottery pieces. The items were strewn about the mountain slope, down which the body had fallen. These included statues, food items (maize kernels and cob), and Spondylus shells, which originate from ocean ecosystems. The clothing she wore resembled textiles from the elite from Cusco, the Inca capital. As Juanita is the closest discovered sacrifice to Cusco and was found with textiles of the wealthy, archaeologists believe that this could suggest she came from a noble Cusco family. Juanita was wrapped in a brightly coloured burial tapestry (or "aksu"). Her head was adorned with a cap made from the feathers of a red macaw, and she wore a lively woollen alpaca shawl fastened with a silver clasp.
She was fully clothed in garments resembling the finest textiles from the Inca capital city of Cusco. These accoutrements were almost perfectly preserved, providing valuable insight into sacred Inca textiles and on how the Inca nobility dressed. Found with her in the burial tapestry was a collection of grave goods: bowls, pins, and figurines made of gold, silver, and shell.
Scientific analysis
Juanita's body was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States in 1996, where researchers conducted computed tomography (CT) scans and other non-destructive examinations of her remains. Early comparisons suggested similarities with the Ngäbe people of Panama, although later research found genetic patterns more consistent with populations from the Andes.
Sacrifice and death
Juanita is believed to have been sacrificed between 1440 and 1480 CE as part of a capacocha (qhapaq hucha) ceremony, a major ritual of the Inca Empire that often involved the sacrifice of children at sacred sites. Juanita was sacrificed on Mount Ampato in the Andes of southern Peru, one of several high mountains used by the Inca for ceremonial offerings. Other researchers have interpreted capacocha as a political practice that helped reinforce imperial authority across the expanding Inca Empire. Scientific examination of Juanita's remains indicates that she died from a forceful blow to the head. Radiologist Elliot K. Fishman identified a fractured right eye socket and a skull fracture measuring approximately , injuries that caused severe bleeding within the skull. Blunt-force trauma was one of several methods used in Inca child sacrifice, alongside strangulation and suffocation.
Legacy
Shortly after her discovery, Time magazine named Juanita one of the world's ten most important discoveries of 1995.
See also
*Children of Llullaillaco *Chinchorro mummies *Inca Mummy Girl *List of unsolved murders (before 1900) *Ötzi, also known as The Iceman *Siberian Ice Maiden *Plomo Mummy
External links
*Andes Expedition: Searching For Inca Secrets on National Geographic *