Mummy Juanita
Momia Juanita (Spanish for "Mummy Juanita"), better known in English as the "Ice Maiden," is an Inca mummy of a girl, between 12-14 years old, who died sometime between 1440 and 1450.
She was discovered in southern Peru in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner Miguel Zarate. Also known as the Lady of Ampato and the Frozen Lady, Juanita toured the United States in 1996 and Japan in 1999 before returning to Peru.
The mummy was remarkably well-preserved for 500 years, making her one of the more important mummy finds in recent years; indeed, this discovery was chosen in 1995 by Time magazine as one of the world's top ten discoveries. According to Reinhard, when found in Mount Ampato (part of the Andes cordillera), the mummy weighed approximately 80 pounds. Reinhard and his partner then came to the realization that the heavy body mass was due to the mummy's flesh being frozen. This was an extraordinary discovery because it allowed biological tests to be run on the lung, liver, and muscle tissue, revealing new insights on Inca health and nutrition during the reign of the Sapa Inca Pachacuti.
Discovery
Johann Reinhard had made various ascents in several mountain ranges like the Himalayas (in Nepal) and the Peruvian Andes. As an archaeologist, he had studied Machu Picchu, Chavín and the Nazca Lines. He became very familiar with the Peruvian heights and the nature of the country's native inhabitants. For him and his partner, Miguel Zárate, a guide from Arequipa, it became a regular routine to climb the Apus, legendary mountain spirits that Peruvians have feared and worshipped since the time of the Inca.
In 1995, during an ascent of Mt. Ampato, Reinhard and Zarate found inside the summit crater a bundle that had fallen down from an Inca site when the ridge had collapsed due to the melting caused by volcanic ash that has fallen from the nearby erupting volcano of Sabancaya. To their astonishment, the bundle turned out to contain a remarkably well-preserved mummy of a young girl. In addition, they found—strewn about the mountain slope down which the mummy had fallen—many items that had been left as offerings to the Inca gods, such as statues and food items. A couple of days later, the mummy and the objects were taken to Arequipa; the remains of the mummy were initially kept in a special refrigerator.
The mummy caused a sensation in the scientific world due to the well-preserved state in which it was found. Between May and June of 1996, the mummy was exhibited in the headquarters of National Geographic Society in Washington D.C., in a specially acclimatized conservation/display unit. In its June 1996 edition, National Geographic also included an article dedicated to the discovery of Juanita and in 2005 Johan Reinhard published a detailed account in his book The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.
Identity
This young girl's body was taken to the United States and went through to a virtual autopsy in the laboratories of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. The mummy had tomographies taken, as well as X-ray examinations. Scientists reached the following conclusions about Juanita:
- she had died at the age of 14, between approximately 1440 and 1450;
- she had had a stature of 1.40 meters;
- she had weighed 80 pounds at the time of death;
- she was slender in build and body shape;
- she had not suffered of any illness;
- she had had a perfect denture and strong bones;
- she had had a good and well-balanced diet;
- she had fasted one day before the sacrifice;
- she had a 5cm fissure in the skull ; and
It is believed by some archaeologists that the Ice Maiden was in fact a human sacrifice to the Inca mountain god (Apus). The Ice Maiden was then buried by the Inca priests atop Mount Ampato (20,700 feet, or 6,309 m) in Peru, and left undisturbed until discovered by Johann Reinhard in 1995.
These discoveries seem to support the theory that during the Inca empire, human sacrifice rituals were still practiced, contrary to the common theories of some archaeologists and historians who deny it. Indeed the mummy was, in Reinhard's opinion, "a young sacrifice victim killed by Inca priests to appease the gods, especially the gods of the mountain." However, what indeed is indicated is that during this epoch, neither anthropophagy nor necrophagy were practiced; on the contrary, both were punished.
Konrad Spindler has said that Juanita is "the best conserved human being from America", adding that she is "the first woman found in Andes closer to Cuzco [...] she could have been from Cuzco and had arrived alive to the snowy mountains and then sacrificed in a couple".
DNA samples
The scientists of Maryland's Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) performed laboratory tests on Juanita's body and were able to recover the heart tissues of the young girl. These tests served to identify her DNA and compare it with the Human Genome Project.
The studies demonstrated that Juanita had a close relationship with the Ngoge tribe of Panama and with old Taiwanese and Korean races. During five years, those involved in the Human Genome Project had compiled samples of blood of every nation of Earth, allocating the groups of DNA geographically. According to that world sample, "the human race descended from the trees of northeast Africa and spread through all the corners of the world".
Whereabouts
Juanita is now housed in the Museum of the Universidad Católica de Santa María of Arequipa, Peru. She is currently encased in a special glass box at a constantly cold temperature to continue preserving her body. The interior of the urn is kept at a temperature between -19.2 °C and -19.5 °C to avoid the dehydration of her body.
In the same museum are "Urpicha" (palomita, "little dove" in Spanish, a mummy found on the volcano Pichu Pichu of Arequipa); "Sarita" (found on the Sarasara volcano, between Arequipa and Ayacucho), and five other mummies found in El Misti volcano, also near Arequipa.
