Incan girl's mummy goes on display
Killed 500 years ago in apparent ritual sacrifice
May 22, 1996
Web posted at: 12:30 a.m. EDTWASHINGTON (CNN) -- The hiker who stumbled upon a frozen body atop a Peruvian mountain in September says he didn't immediately sense the full importance of his discovery.
"When we turned it over and saw the face, I thought, 'Uh-oh, she's dried out,'" Dr. Johan Reinhard recalled. "But when we lifted her up ... that was the moment the electricity ran through the body, because we knew that we had something absolutely unique. It's the first frozen body from pre-Columbian times in the Andes."
Reinhard, an anthropologist, carried the body on a bus to a Catholic University in Arequipa, Peru, where scientific analysis began.
On Tuesday, Reinhard looked on as the mummy was unveiled to the American public for the first time, at the National Geographic Society building in Washington. Until June 19, visitors can inspect the Incan girl, who has been dead for half a millennium. (1.1M QuickTime movie)
The teen-age mummy has inspired awe, curiosity and affection. She is known as the "Ice Maiden" or "Ampato Maiden," or simply "Juanita."
Volcano-top ritual bludgeoning
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore examined the mummy using a CT scan. The computer-driven X-ray revealed a crack in the skull, just above the right eye, and a brain that was pushed aside -- probably by internal bleeding. The research team concluded that the healthy girl 12 to 14 years old was killed by a powerful blow to the head.
Archaeologists believe she was taken to a religious complex on the Nevado Ampato volcano for a ritual sacrifice to appease Inca gods. Before the killing, she may have fasted and taken drugs or an intoxicating drink.
After finding the Ice Maiden, Reinhard returned to the volcano and found two more ancient bodies. One was probably an 8-year-old girl; the other may have been a young boy. Both had been damaged by lightning after burial.
The National Geographic Society plans to feature the Ampato mummy in its new Web site, scheduled for launch in late June.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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