Preserved mummy of 500-year-old Inca 'Ice Maiden' wows visitors
7th September 2007[/align]
Museum-goers have gasped at the well-preserved mummy of an Inca maiden which is on display for the first time, a serene gaze etched on her face from hundreds of years ago when she froze to death high in the Andes. Crowds of people packed a museum in Salta, Argentina, to see "la Doncella" - Spanish for "the Maiden" - a 15-year-old girl whose remains were found in 1999 in an icy pit on Llullaillaco volcano, along with a six-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy.
Scientists believe the so-called Children of Llullaillaco were sacrificed more than 500 years ago in a ceremony marking the annual corn harvest. Dressed in fine clothes and given corn alcohol to put them to sleep, the victims were then left to die at an elevation of 6,730 meters (22,080 feet).
"Just this morning we have had more than 700 people come see the exhibit, and we had hundreds yesterday when it opened," said High Mountain Archaeological Museum director Gabriel Miremont. The mummy is kept in a chamber that pumps chilled air through a low-oxygen atmosphere, simulating the subfreezing conditions where it was found. The other two children are being studied and are not on display.
Seated with her legs bent and her arms resting on her stomach, the Maiden's remains are still adorned with a gray shawl and bone and metal ornaments. Scientists say her face was daubed with red pigment and around her mouth they found flecks of coca leaf, which is chewed by highland Indians to blunt the effects of altitude. The Children of Llullaillaco were found at the highest elevation ever discovered for sacrificial victims of the former Inca empire, which ran along the Andes from present-day northern Argentina to Peru.
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pretty amazing that it's survived so well eh?
