Wikipedia

Mummy Juanita

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.[3] 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.[citation needed]

Mummy Juanita
Mummy Juanita's body before unwrapping of her bundle.
Map
LocationMount Ampato, Peru
Coordinates15°49′S 71°53′W / 15.817°S 71.883°W / -15.817; -71.883
Official name
Dama de Ampato o Juanita
TypeMovable tangible
CriteriaPre-Hispanic
Designated23 November 2020; 5 years ago (2020-11-23)[1]
Reference no.297058[2]
Legal basis
RVM 184-2020-VMPCIC-MC

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,[4] and was displayed on a tour in Japan in 1999.[5]

In 1995, Time magazine chose her as one of the world's top ten discoveries.[6] 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.[7]

Discovery

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The girl who became known as Juanita was discovered in September 1995 during an ascent of Mount Ampato, a 6,300 m; 20,700 ft 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.[3][8] Ice melt and erosion had exposed the site, causing the bundle to fall from its original location on the mountain.[3][8]

The bundle contained the frozen body of a young girl.[3] Juanita's remains and the objects buried with her were transported to Arequipa, Peru, to prevent thawing during conservation and study.[3]

The discovery led to further archaeological investigations on Mount Ampato. In October 1995, an expedition led by Reinhard and Peruvian archaeologist José Antonio Chávez recovered two additional frozen child mummies, a girl and a boy. A third female mummy was recovered from the mountain in December 1997.[9]

Condition and preservation

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Juanita was discovered almost entirely frozen on Mount Ampato.[10] Freezing temperatures at high altitude preserved her body in exceptional condition, including her internal organs, hair, blood, skin, and stomach contents.[10]

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.[10] Because of the condition of her remains, Juanita has been described as one of the best-preserved mummies from the Andes.[10]

Associated objects and clothing

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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.[11] These have been connected to rain ceremonies throughout the Incan Empire.[11] 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.[12]

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

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Juanita's body was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States for a CT scan in 1996.[3]

Body

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As Reinhard and Zárate struggled on Ampato's summit to lift the heavy bundle containing Juanita's body, they realized that her body mass had probably been increased by freezing of the flesh. When initially weighed in Arequipa, the bundle containing "Juanita" weighed over 90 pounds (40.82 kilos). Their realization turned out to be correct: Juanita was almost entirely frozen, making her a substantial scientific find.

Analysis of her stomach contents revealed that she ate a meal of vegetables six to eight hours before her death.[13] Some evidence suggests that she may have come from a noble Cusco family. Stable isotopic analysis of other child sacrifices in the area has found changes in diet within the last year of life to indicate whether they originated from common families.[14] This is usually indicated by the amount of meat protein consumed. Noble families would consume meat regularly whereas this may not have been the case for a non-noble family. Since there is no specific analysis of Juanita it is inconclusive if she came from a noble family or not. However, analysis of similar child sacrifices in the region all indicate that at six months before their death they were in Cusco, likely for a ceremony before making their journey to the mountains.[14]

Genetic analysis

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According to the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), the closest kin they could find in the database in 1996 were the Ngäbe people of Panama, but later research has shown her to share genetic patterns found in people from the Andes. Scientists at TIGR examined two mitochondrial DNA D loop sequences and found that Hypervariable region 1 (HV1) was consistent with mitochondrial haplogroup A2, one of the five Native American mitochondrial haplogroups. Hypervariable region 2 (HV2) included a unique sequence not found in any of the current mitochondrial DNA databases.[15] Her haplotype is 16111T, 16223T, 16290T, 16319A.[16]

Death

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Through extracting DNA from Mummy Juanita's well-preserved hair, scientists were able to determine her diet prior to the sacrifice.[dubious – discuss] The analysis of her hair indicated that Juanita was eating foods such as animal protein and maize, which were the diet of the elite, unlike the standard Inca diet of vegetables.[17][better source needed]

The final six to eight weeks of life for a sacrificed Incan child consisted of heavy use of drugs and alcohol. With a combination of coca and chicha alcohol, the children would be in a highly intoxicated psychological state. Markers in Juanita's hair indicate that she was given coca and alcohol prior to her death, suggesting that she was in a state of near unconsciousness.[17][better source needed]

Radiologist Elliot K. Fishman concluded that she was killed by blunt trauma to the head. He observed that her cracked right eye socket and the two-inch (5 cm) fracture in her skull are injuries "typical of someone who has been hit by a baseball bat." The blow caused a massive hemorrhage, filling her skull with blood and pushing her brain to one side.[18] Death by trauma to the head was a common technique of sacrificing children in this era, along with strangulation and suffocation (burying alive).[19]

Capacocha

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The ritual sacrifice called capacocha (or qhapaq hucha) was a key component to the Inca Empire. This ritual, which usually involved the sacrifice of children, was for celebratory events. These events included an annual or biennial event in the Incan calendar, the death of an emperor, the birth of a royal son, or a victory in battle, and were performed to prevent natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, droughts, earthquakes, and epidemics.[20] Beyond celebratory events and sacrifice for prevention, child sacrifice represented military and political expansion for the culture along with the empire's ability to use coercion and control.[citation needed]

As tribute payment, Inca rulers ordered boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 16 to sacrifice. Evidence of strontium analysis suggests that children were taken from several different geographical areas, brought to the Inca capital, and then potentially underwent months of travel to the sacred location at which they would be sacrificed.[20] Archaeologists have discovered through biochemical analysis that coca (the primary source of cocaine) and alcohol were commonly found in the children's systems.[21] Although archaeologists are unsure of why drugs and alcohol were used, some suggest that it was to put the chosen children in a stupor prior to death.[citation needed]

Legacy

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Shortly after her discovery, Time magazine named Juanita one of the world's ten most important discoveries of 1995.[6] Between May and June 1996, her remains were exhibited at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., in a specially acclimatized conservation display.[7] The discovery was also the subject of a feature article in the June 1996 issue of National Geographic.[7]

Since 1996, Juanita's remains have been housed at the Museo Santuarios Andinos of the Catholic University of Santa María in Arequipa, Peru.[4] In 1999, she was exhibited in Japan.[5]

Nearly three decades after her discovery, a forensic facial reconstruction created by Swedish archaeologist and sculptor Oscar Nilsson was unveiled in Arequipa in 2023. Using scans of Juanita's skull, DNA evidence, and other anthropological data, the reconstruction produced a life-sized depiction of how she may have appeared during her lifetime.[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Resolución Viceministerial Nº 184-2020-VMPCIC-MC (PDF) (in Spanish). Ministry of Culture. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  2. ↑ Resolución Viceministerial Nº 184-2020-VMPCIC-MC - Anexo (PDF) (in Spanish). Ministry of Culture. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Meeting A 500-Year-Old Peruvian Mummy". HuffPost. 2011-12-15. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "UNESCO reconoce a la Casa de la Cultura UCSM y al museo Santuarios Andinos como patrimonio cultural de Arequipa". Universidad Católica de Santa María (in Spanish). 8 May 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Peruvian Ice Maiden". EBSCO Research Starters. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  6. 1 2 Gorman, Christine (1995-11-06). "Archaeology: RETURN OF THE ICE MAIDEN". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  7. 1 2 3 Reinhard, Johan: Peru’s Ice Maidens. National Geographic 189(6) (June): 62–81, 1996.
  8. 1 2 Tanneeru, Manav (3 November 2023). "Archaeologists reveal the face of Peru's 'Ice Maiden' mummy". CNN. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  9. ↑ Reinhard, Johan (July 1998). "New Inca Mummies". National Geographic. 194 (1): 128–135.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "NOVA Online | Ice Mummies of the Inca | The High Mummies (2)". PBS. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  11. 1 2 Reinhard, Johan (1998). The Ice Maiden: Incan Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes. Washington D.C.: National Geographic. ISBN 9780792271420.
  12. ↑ "NOVA Online | Ice Mummies of the Inca | The High Mummies (2)". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  13. ↑ "Ice Maiden Virtual Autopsy". Andes Expedition – Searching For Inca Secrets. National Geographic. 1997. Archived from the original on 2011-06-23. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  14. 1 2 Wilson, A. S.; Taylor, T.; Ceruti, M. C.; Chavez, J. A.; Reinhard, J.; Grimes, V.; Meier-Augenstein, W.; Cartmell, L.; Stern, B.; Richards, M. P.; Worobey, M. (2007-10-08). "Stable isotope and DNA evidence for ritual sequences in Inca child sacrifice". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (42): 16456–16461. Bibcode:2007PNAS..10416456W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0704276104. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2034262. PMID 17923675.
  15. ↑ "DNA: The Key to the Mystery". Andes Expedition – Searching For Inca Secrets. National Geographic. 1997. Archived from the original on 2012-10-14. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  16. ↑ "Ancient DNA". www.isogg.org. International Society of Genetic Genealogy. 2005-05-14. Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  17. 1 2 Stice, Joel (2017-09-08). "Meet The Inca Ice Maiden, Perhaps The Best-Preserved Mummy In Human History". All That's Interesting. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  18. ↑ "Fatal Head Injury: Cracked Eye Socket and Skull Fracture". Andes Expedition – Searching For Inca Secrets. National Geographic. 1997. Archived from the original on 2012-10-14. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
  19. ↑ Jennifer Nalewicki (2023-11-03). "Incan 'Ice Maiden' who died in sacrifice 500 years ago revealed in hyper-realistic facial reconstruction". Live Science. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  20. 1 2 Hirst, K. Kris. "High Altitude Sacrifice of Children in the Inca Capacocha Ceremony". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  21. ↑ "Inca Child Sacrifice Victims Were Drugged". National Geographic News. 2013-07-29. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  22. ↑ Diaz, Johnny (1 November 2023). "A 500-Year-Old Inca Mummy in Peru Now Has a Face". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2026.

Further reading

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