A team of researchers decided to explore South America’s Mount Llullaillaco. They were expecting some groundbreaking discoveries as the summit had not been explored much. They had no idea what they were about to find was not only going to create a ripple in the community of archaeologists but the entire world.
Johan Reinhard, Explorer-in-Residence of National Geographic Society and his team had been marching towards this mountain for many days and now as they had reached they thought of taking some rest. It is an incident that occurred in March 1999.
On March 16, 1999, they decided to take some rest as they had been walking continuously facing heavy snowfall and untamed winds on the summit of South America’s Mount Llullaillaco with height 20,000-foot. They had been looking for this site all this while. They had high hopes with this place but never had they expected what was in the offing.
This was not the first time, Dr. Reinhard was roaming on Mount Llullaillaco. He had made several visits to this place. He used to examine ruins and try trails to reach the top of the mountain. The team faced the worst situation previous month when they had to fight ferocious winds and snow around the summit. He explained, 'We had several days of finding nothing,' ''I was about to give up.''
This place is well known for housing rare things. The mountain was not like any other mountain capped with snow. This very place was way more mysterious then it seemed. It may surprise you to know that this is the spot where “the best-preserved Inca mummies ever found.”
Not only one but the team also found three mummies at the Andes mountain range. Of which, one would have been a teenage girl. The mummy of teenage girl was special in the sense that it was the oldest among all the bodies found.
The archeologists descended the summit only to be welcomed by Argentine military vehicles. They came down the summit with a cargo of mummies covered in plastic, foam insulation, and snow.
There was a layer of snow all over found bodies even after they reached Salta. This is a city situated about 300 miles away from the mountain. The team consisted of people from Salta's Conservation of High Altitude Cultural Patrimony. Argentine archeologist, Constanza Ceruti took the position of co-leader of the journey.
You won't believe how preserved the girl was. Even the strands of her hair were preserved enough for examination. At the time of discovery, the body was donning clothes. They nicknamed her Maiden of Llullaillaco. A feather headdress was there placed inside her braided hair. Along with that, the body was encircled with tiny tokens.
Dr. Reinhard stated, ''The preservation of the mummies is just fantastic." ''It's eerie looking at the arms. You can still see the light hair on their arms.'' They had never seen a centuries-old body preserved so beautifully.
Dr. Reinhard explained, ''the undamaged female has a beautiful yellow, geometrically designed cover laid over her outer mantle.''
They also discovered two children near the maiden. They were a boy called “Llullaillaco Boy,” and a girl named “Lightning Girl.” The boy would not have been more than five years and the girl must be four years old. Possibly the kids were servants of the maiden.
So how did we come to this conclusion? There had been a medical examination of the Maiden, They took a lock of her hair. It was discovered that the Maiden had a different diet as compared to her other tomb-mates. This test was made in 2013. The investigation concluded in 2007. The research was conducted by Andrew Wilson from U.K.’s University of Bradford.
Interestingly, researchers also found stone ruins down the summit. The spot was 17,000-foot below the mountain peak. They also stumbled upon ceramics of a camp where participants probably used to stay before ascending to the summit for their fate.
What Wilson further learned that the diet of those two children was the same as the peasants of that time. According to the team, they used to eat vegetables only. The diet included especially potatoes.
The testing was done so efficiently that the researchers easily figured out that the diet of the younger girl had changed just a year before her death. In this year, the children had started eating expensive food items like Ilama and maize.
The food items present in their body clarified that these kids had started the intake of Incan elite diet some months ago only. On the other hand, Maiden herself was eating this type of food for a long time.
Not only did the hair samples helped archeologists to find out about their eating habits but also highlighted the individual difference they had with each other. They found out that Maiden had also consumed coca leaves in a heavier amount than the children found with her. It is to be noted that coca leaves are a very good source of cocaine.
Wilson said, "she has fantastically tightly braided hair, which effectively acts as a timeline stretching back almost two years before her death.” There were many other things they noticed about the Maiden that was going to prove very significant for the research.
Other evidence along with these findings alluded to the fact that the Maiden was an important body present in the tomb. And as the Maiden had taken a heavier amount of cocaine in relation to her accompaniers, forensic experts believe that she would have gone numb prior to her sacrificial death. The archeologists are very positive about it being sacrificial death.
According to a popular theory, these children became subject of sacrificial death for a rite called “capacocha.” This type of ceremony was practiced very rarely by Incans in those days and so someone very important was made the subject of it. This must have come as an honor for the Maiden.
However, John Verano, Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana said, “We can only hypothesise, but being older, she might have had more of an idea of what was going on around her.” They also suspected, “Was she nervous and using drink as a way to deal with it?”
They did not do it without reason. They believed that sacrificing these pretty, pure, and young people would secure space for the subjects in the utopian world with gods. They also believed that the sacrificed people used to work as a liaison between the holy men of communities and gods after their death.
But there was one more theory that gave it a political color. Andrew Wilson put forth that the Maiden shifted in with priestesses to the city of Cusco, Incans' most important city. They stayed there till the time they did not make their way to Llullaillaco.
Wilson also commented about the level of coca found in Maiden. According to him, it was at its highest in comparison to half a year before her sacrifice. The finding signifies that before the transpiration of sacrifice there used to be a ritual. This way the Incans used to announce the coming sacrifice in its community.
Keeping theories to the bay, the Maiden did not receive a painful death. But that was not the case with the Llullaillaco Boy. His head was still stained with blood and the whole body tied. It seemed that the boy was suffocated.
The Lightning Girl whose name was derived from the fact that the girl had gotten struck by lightning. Perhaps the girl had gotten frozen and ultimately died because of it. Maiden had faced the same fate. However, Maiden would not have feared much as she was under the influence of cocaine.
Discovery of this sort is quite rare. In fact, researchers had never imagined something like this before the discovery of these mummies. No doubt, these amazingly preserved bodies let the researchers peek half a millennium back into the history.
In 2013 Andrew Wilson stated, “The exciting thing about these individuals is that they probably still have much more to tell us.” This is just the beginning.
Wilson intrigued people's interest by saying, “Locked in their tissues are many stories still to unfold.” As a history lover, we all want to know all about those stories that are buried inside their preserved body.
Isn't it strange? They actually found well-preserved bodies that are centuries old in such a good condition.