Mummies

Some of the best-preserved natural mummies date from the Inca period in Peru and Chile some 500 years ago, where children were ritually sacrificed on the summits of mountains in the Andes. In 1995, the frozen body, not desiccated and so not strictly a mummy, of an 11- to 14-year-old Inca girl who had died sometime between 1440 and 1450 was discovered on Mount Ampato in southern Peru. Known as "Mummy Juanita" ("Momia Juanita" in Spanish) or "The Ice Maiden", some archaeologists believe that she was a human sacrifice to the Inca mountain god Inti. In Chile, there is 'Miss Chile', a well preserved Tiwanaku-era mummy. She is currently kept by the Gustavo Page Museum in San Pedro de Atacama. The atacaman community decided to stop displaying the mummies of their ancestor, as a sign of respect to their forefathers. Three child mummies, discovered in 1999 on Mount Llullaillaco, 6700 m above sea level, are on display at the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology in Salta, Argentina. In addition to the ancient Chachapoyas peoples, mummies are associated with the Chazuta culture of the Peruvian Upper Amazon.