Tuesday 7 May 2013

Incan Girl Who Had Been Frozen For 500 Years.

Well initially this might look to you like any normal girl being treated by a doctor; the girl in the photo is not any normal living girl but the mummy of a 15 year old child who has been dead for about 500 years. She was discovered in 1999 near Llullaillaco's 6739 meter summit. An Argentine-Peruvian expedition found the perfectly preserved body and she was nicknamed "La doncella" which means “The maiden”. According to the Inca she was chosen to go and live with the gods. But in reality she was a sacrifice to the Inca Gods and had been viciously killed in the name of religion.

Scientists say that her organs are unbroken and it’s as if she had died just a few weeks ago. From testing the samples of her hair they could determine the type of diet she was on before her death. This unique discovery leads that the Incan fattened their children before killing them. Months or even years before the sacrifice pilgrimage these children were given diets which were those of the elite, consisting of maize and animal proteins. Guessing from the plight of the body, it is hardly believed that she was drugged and left to die in the mountains.

It would not have taken a great deal of time for her to die due to the high exposure. The Incan high priests took their victims to high mountain tops for sacrifice. As the journey was tremendously long and difficult, particularly so for the younger victims, coca leaves were fed to them to aid them in their breathing so as to allow them to reach the burial site alive. Upon reaching the burial site, the children were given an intoxicating drink to reduce pain, fear, and resistance, then killed them either by strangulation, a blow to their head or by leaving them to lose consciousness in the extreme cold and die of exposure. A lot of Inca children were offered as sacrifice during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca (who was the emperor) or during a famine. These sacrifices were known as capacocha.
 





 


1 comment:

  1. Really amazing...!!

    Ashish Biswas, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    ReplyDelete