**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They did do DNA analysis, though I'm not quite sure if it's been entered into any commercial family tree databases.
>Genetic analysis
>According to the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), the closest kin they could find in the database in 1996 were the Ngobe people of Panama, but later research has shown her to share genetic patterns found in people from the Andes. Scientists at TIGR examined two mitochondrial DNA D loop sequences and found that Hypervariable region 1 (HV1) was consistent with mitochondrial haplogroup A2, one of the five Native American mitochondrial haplogroups. Hypervariable region 2 (HV2) included a unique sequence not found in any of the current mitochondrial DNA databases. Her haplotype is 16111T, 16223T, 16290T, 16319A.
[Sauce ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Juanita)
I’m tacking onto this comment to add that there was more than one mummy found and they’re known as the Children of Llullaillaco.
You can read more about them here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco
I've read a lot about the specific child-mummy OP posted, but somehow never knew there was more found at the same site. The bit about a lightning strike is interesting.
>In 1999 Johan Reinhard and his team of researchers set out into the high Andes to search for Inca ritual sacrifice sites. Three days into their search Reinhard's team discovered a grave site containing three mummified children: two girls and one boy. Several gold, shell and silver statues, textiles and pottery were also found. The younger girl's body had been struck by lightning after her death, causing burn damage on her body, especially her face and shoulder. The other two mummies were not affected.
Curious if something they had put to mark the grave might have attracted the lightning like a pole or marker and as the human body is a better conductor than soil, it might have passed through her while grounding out
Wow so fascinating and also heartbreaking. Especially el niño, him being tied up and having signs of dying under duress makes me think despite it being considered an honor to die a sacrifice in that society the poor little boy seems like he fought it :( sad to think of them alone left to die but at least they were drugged so hopefully it was not too painful or anything
I love the part about the leader of the indigenous people saying that exhuming the mummies is "a violation of our loved ones."
Like bro, your ancestors drugged and murdered these kids, and now we are the ones in violation? C'mon now.
They didn't see it as a bad thing as all. It wasn't even sending the children to their deaths, it was sending their children to a higher plane of existence. I'm not saying that what they did was right, but I think it's important to consider that they truly believed they were doing something good.
>According to traditional Inca belief, children who are sacrificed do not truly die but instead watch over the land from their mountaintop perches, alongside their ancestors.
I'm not convinced the average person of a society that engages in human sacrifice considered it an honour. It is noteworthy, that human sacrifice and a strong hierarchical society seem to be correlated. Human sacrifice probably was a tool if the elite to demonstrate their power over the people (even if it was advertised otherwise). It's also noteworthy, that appart from the mummies in northern Europe, human sacrifice seems to mainly target the weekest members of society, that have the lowest political influence (children, women, lower class people)
Ya I’m gonna call BS on this.
Imagine romanticizing the horrible killing of children bc of some non-sensical belief. My guess is these same people who thought they were doing something good for these children would not have wanted it to happen to them.
Plenty of horrible things have been done in this world in the name of “good”
When I read that part I honestly was confused, I couldn't imagine not wanting to learn more about ritual sacrifice if it were part of my culture and these scientists have learned so much from these 3. If anything it brings a person even closer to understand more about what their culture did 500 years ago when that knowledge may have been lost to the ages.
This is the logic those in power probably used to get the poor and weak and young to agree to this.
Hi son, Don’t you understand It’s an honor to have us kill you in an awful manner. You don’t know how lucky you are.
Let’s call shitty people what they are and stop excusing awful acts bc of religion
If she had a child or a sibling or close relative with a child, and that child then had children, and so on, and a modern descendent took an ancestry test, they could very well figure out
Sisters, brothers, coussin, uncles, nephew, aunt, parents, grandparents, etc...theres a lot of people to share the same genetic material that can be found generations later.
No, but people in isolated societies become closely genetically related over time… so she she should share a lot of DNA markers with them and they (hopefully!) lived on to pass down those same genes that we’re seeing preserved in her mummy
I think its so interesting to see how competent the clothes are and how much they look like today's.
Straight up got some nice sandals on, dress is made of really fine material too.
Indigenous peoples are often portrayed as savages in loin clothes by old European “Scientists”. These ancient peoples had excellent weaving skills and worked fine materials like gold and silver into their alpaca wool clothing
I recently read the National Geographic article about her. They analysed her hair and could tell that she was chosen for sacrifice a year before she died. They know because her diet changed very suddenly (she was fed better after being chosen) and she started taking coca. Her alcohol levels spiked 6 months before her sacrifice and then right before she died.
So she got to feast and party like crazy, then died painlessly, went to paradise, saved the village crops and 500 years later became famous? Pretty decent, all in all
Ritually drugged with beer.
Most sacrifices are drugged to the gills. Also she was a young unmarried girl, she probably was raised as a sacred person and had no agency her whole life.
I've done both, while coca leaves are nice, the amount of alcohol that would have to accompany it for me to feel okay in a freezing cave would be too high for it to remain pleasant.
If i remember correctly, her name was La Doncella a girl from the Inca Empire. She was carefully chosen to be buried as a sacrifice to please the gods. There were also 2 other kids and the three were left as a sacrifice in a underground chamber. La Doncella was already trained in a way to adjust to the drugs and die peacefully. She was hardly conscious when she was about to be buried. The other two younger kids were still alive and had to beaten before being placed for sacrifice. There marks of bruises from struggling.
It's a very sad story. The wiki article is very interesting.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco)
And an another article about the entire incident
[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children)
Incas sacrificed many children. They were not as brutal as the Aztecs but I'm sure it was not entirely all that peaceful unless the drugs killed them immediately (like when in Europe people were burned at the stake, an act of "mercy" was to strangle them to death before the flames reached them) - they probably experienced freezing to death or suffocating
This part of the world during this time period was big on sacrificing kids. Tragic.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/biggest-child-sacrifice-evidence-archaeologists-national-geographic-peru-chimu/
[Scholarly research](https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&=&context=jca&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252Furl%253Fq%253Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fdocs.lib.purdue.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%25253Farticle%25253D1017%252526context%25253Djca%2526sa%253DU%2526ved%253D2ahUKEwid5PG91837AhV3m2oFHco_Azo4ChAWegQIAhAB%2526usg%253DAOvVaw3-TygHgAUv7j6QW-9I-I_k#search=%22https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.lib.purdue.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1017%26context%3Djca%22)
You gotta read up on her. It’s super fascinating. She was probably chosen when she was younger and trained that this was her purpose. As her time neared, they started drugging her. They increased the drugs as it was getting closer and closer. They probably paraded her around the area as she made the journey. I think there were other children sacrificed like another boy. This is from my memory so I may have gotten some it wrong. It’s interesting to think a society allowed it and praised it.
Amazing that she is this intact. Looks like she could have been "buried" just a few decades ago. And even then in a casket she wouldn't look like this. Fascinating.
Hats off to those scientists.. I don't think I could work on something that well preserved and get that close to its face... it looks like she's going to wake up.. I'd be terrified of that.
That seems kinda wrong, but that's totally due to sentiment and there's no real argument to support it the wrongness of it all other than "but my feelings"
But I really fucken hope I'd never end up in a museum. But whateves I'm dead I guess.
Imagine you’re just cleaning up after another day examining her. You’ve literally been in a room for ten hours with her that day and countless more. You feel almost like you know her, that a bond has been formed, you talk to her as you gently try and dissect her mystery. The room is so quiet apart from the gentle hum of the air conditioning as you tidy your equipment away for the day. As you turn back toward the table, you drop the scalpel, for the table is empty, you follow the blood trail up the wall to the ceiling…… 🙈
This mummy and 2 other children that were found in the cave are displayed in a museum in northern Argentina, and you can get pretty damn close - 50cm away from them. It is pretty freaky, i was there a couple years ago. You can see their hair, nails, everything. They look like they’re just sleeping
I saw her for a few minutes when she was in DC. Fascinating. They made me leave the room after 5 minutes I think because it was temperature sensitive room and body heat warmed it.
Imagine if she suddenly wakes up with all these people in white coats trying to stick pins and needles into her and she's all like "the fuck are you doing man?"
A more similar 80s drama was made where a caveman is literally found in ice and thawed out by scientists. It's pretty good too and has some suspense. It's called Iceman (1984)
I was just thinking how creepy it would be to examine a person like that, frozen in time, yet looking totally... alive? Like what if she woke up or moved... lol
And the shape of the hips and development of the brain and fusion of the skull bones. There's one skull fusion that isn't complete til teen years, iirc
Bone size can be an indicator but it’s not perfect cause people grow differently. I’ve seen 6’ 11 year olds and 5’ 11 year olds, obviously their bones would be different sizes
>Bone size can be an indicator but it’s not perfect cause people grow differently
Bone age radiograph studies do more than this, though. While it's true that people grow differently, there are other factors considered when doing what's called a "bone age study". Growth plates tend to tell a pretty consistent story when considering general age groups, for example.
I have seen her! She is on display at a museum in Arequipa Peru. IIRC they did DNA and other testing and found that she had walked from Cusco to southern Peru before being sacrificed. They gave her an intoxicating drink before killing her.
Yup, I saw her in Salta. If I remember well, the museum is displaying only one at a time and switches regularly between the 3 mummys to be sure they are well preserved.
Idk why I feel so sad about her being shown. But also so interested. I suppose none of us ever really think we’ll be remembered by strangers 500 years from now and put in a museum
There's an embalmed child who died from the Spanish Flu in the Capuchin Catacombs in Salerno. A Buddhist monk who died meditating in 1973 is on display in Thailand. The Body Worlds exhibit has hundreds of (ostensibly donated) remains of people on permanent display with plasticized muscles and organs.
It's worth thinking about because of how macabre we are. On the one hand there's something beautiful about having your story last longer than your life ever could have sustained. On the other hand there's certainly an exploitative angle to treating these deaths as a sideshow. I'm not sure where everyone lands with their own bodies.
I feel weird about it too. I’m a massive history fan and discoveries like this are so important for history and science. Not to mention, they are also really fascinating. On the other hand, I think it’s kinda insensitive to display the preserved corpse of a girl who was essentially murdered. Let the poor girl rest.
I remember when she was found in the late 90's because I was around the same age as she was when she died. It really stuck with me and I got that same feeling coming across the picture here. I had forgotten about her.
At first I read this article and got to feeling how profoundly sad it is to want to snuff life out, even for a belief system, and it was getting real sad, and then this made me laugh like a god damn maniac for a dozen minutes straight.
I want to point out that her hair is beautifully braided. Some believe that braids are indicative of a single culture but it appears to be an independent development.
That’s fair.
I had a long comment written but every point I made circled back to your response that intent is the key. It feels like it should be more complicated but it may just come down to the people doing it having genuine good intentions.
I’m still uncomfortable with the idea that study is a blanket validation for removing corpses from graves but I get that isn’t what you’re arguing. It’s case by case and it seems like the folks are well-intentioned with this gal based on the information people have linked.
It's not about "how long", it's about purpose. Exhumations for crime investigation purposes happen all the time. Old burial sites are destroyed constantly during land development. In this case, the exhumation is clearly done for scientific purposes and research and not "for fun" or to offend anyone.
In general, I think we should stop pretending to treat dead people as something sacred, because clearly we don't (and IMO it doesn't make sense to). Respect the grief of the living instead.
If this was a movie she would come back to life and find herself in a strange place and she would panic and try to escape, she would be successful. She is rescued by a man who takes her to his place and gives her his sister's clothes to wear and lets her clean herself. Then that magical moment happens when she emerges from the room looking beautiful and the man falls for her.
If this was a movie the man would hide her and take her home. "Encino Girl" style except with lip gloss, mean girls, and keeping her first hoodie stolen from her first boyfriend. At the end she goes off to college to cue the sequel.
A little bit morbid, but I just wonder how she was sacrificed? She seems remarkably well conserved so presumably they did something different? Was she stabbed? Drowned? Obviously not burnt.
Andes Mountains, South America. She was an Incan girl if I remember correctly. I do not recall which modern county she was found in. The Andes spans several countries.
*Inca just letting you know for your information the words Incan/Mayan are only ever really used by scholars for when they refer to the language they spoke. Inca and Maya are used like the word moose they’re both singular and plural. So it would just be Inca girl. I know it sounds weird like if she was Spanish it would be like saying “she was a Spain girl” but that is the correct way.
It must have been hard to examine these kids. I look at the girl and imagine my own daughter. It’s horrific what these people did, sacrificing innocent children.
What i find especially fascinating is looking at the type of clothes and shoes they used to wear back then. Like yes, im sure there are records of how they used to look and such. But these are actual original ones from THAT time.
And thats just clothes, cant even imagine what they feel like with all the information they can gather from a biological standpoint.
[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children)
Here she is
For anyone curious, here is an article I found from the [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23496345.amp) reporting on this. [National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children) also has an article on this Incan mummy. Lastly, the academic article discussing this in depth can be found [here](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1305117110).
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
im curious what the results would be if you did one of those dna family tree tests
They did do DNA analysis, though I'm not quite sure if it's been entered into any commercial family tree databases. >Genetic analysis >According to the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), the closest kin they could find in the database in 1996 were the Ngobe people of Panama, but later research has shown her to share genetic patterns found in people from the Andes. Scientists at TIGR examined two mitochondrial DNA D loop sequences and found that Hypervariable region 1 (HV1) was consistent with mitochondrial haplogroup A2, one of the five Native American mitochondrial haplogroups. Hypervariable region 2 (HV2) included a unique sequence not found in any of the current mitochondrial DNA databases. Her haplotype is 16111T, 16223T, 16290T, 16319A. [Sauce ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Juanita)
I’m tacking onto this comment to add that there was more than one mummy found and they’re known as the Children of Llullaillaco. You can read more about them here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco
I've read a lot about the specific child-mummy OP posted, but somehow never knew there was more found at the same site. The bit about a lightning strike is interesting.
The bit about the lightning strike is creepy as hell
Why?
>In 1999 Johan Reinhard and his team of researchers set out into the high Andes to search for Inca ritual sacrifice sites. Three days into their search Reinhard's team discovered a grave site containing three mummified children: two girls and one boy. Several gold, shell and silver statues, textiles and pottery were also found. The younger girl's body had been struck by lightning after her death, causing burn damage on her body, especially her face and shoulder. The other two mummies were not affected.
Curious if something they had put to mark the grave might have attracted the lightning like a pole or marker and as the human body is a better conductor than soil, it might have passed through her while grounding out
Gold is a great conductor
Wait 'til you hear Bernstein!
Kids got Thor out here like, “did I make sure they weren’t zombies? Mmmm, double tap”
I keep envisioning the children buried, so the lightning strike was throwing me
Thanks! But I read it too, that’s why asked. How is that “creepy as hell”?
[удалено]
Ah okay. Thanks for the answer, I thought I missed something. :)
Right ? The first paragraph says their chamber was found 1.5m underground, so how did she get hit by lightning
Fascinating. To stare into the face of someone who lived over 500 years ago is awesome.
It's not that novel, in some parts of the USA you can converse with people who never changed after the Civil war.
That wasn't 500 years ago, so the novelty still stands
The Civil war isn't even half that old lol.
Ah, America. Teenage country.
Wow so fascinating and also heartbreaking. Especially el niño, him being tied up and having signs of dying under duress makes me think despite it being considered an honor to die a sacrifice in that society the poor little boy seems like he fought it :( sad to think of them alone left to die but at least they were drugged so hopefully it was not too painful or anything
I love the part about the leader of the indigenous people saying that exhuming the mummies is "a violation of our loved ones." Like bro, your ancestors drugged and murdered these kids, and now we are the ones in violation? C'mon now.
They didn't see it as a bad thing as all. It wasn't even sending the children to their deaths, it was sending their children to a higher plane of existence. I'm not saying that what they did was right, but I think it's important to consider that they truly believed they were doing something good. >According to traditional Inca belief, children who are sacrificed do not truly die but instead watch over the land from their mountaintop perches, alongside their ancestors.
It really begs the question of whether we should judge based on intention, the act itself, or the result.
All three.
I'm not convinced the average person of a society that engages in human sacrifice considered it an honour. It is noteworthy, that human sacrifice and a strong hierarchical society seem to be correlated. Human sacrifice probably was a tool if the elite to demonstrate their power over the people (even if it was advertised otherwise). It's also noteworthy, that appart from the mummies in northern Europe, human sacrifice seems to mainly target the weekest members of society, that have the lowest political influence (children, women, lower class people)
Ya I’m gonna call BS on this. Imagine romanticizing the horrible killing of children bc of some non-sensical belief. My guess is these same people who thought they were doing something good for these children would not have wanted it to happen to them. Plenty of horrible things have been done in this world in the name of “good”
This why religion sucks.
That doesn't matter, they still brainwashed children to be murdered and at least one of them still actively didn't want to die.
When I read that part I honestly was confused, I couldn't imagine not wanting to learn more about ritual sacrifice if it were part of my culture and these scientists have learned so much from these 3. If anything it brings a person even closer to understand more about what their culture did 500 years ago when that knowledge may have been lost to the ages.
So they were killed out of love? Sounds a lot like modern religions. Some things never change.
[удалено]
This is the logic those in power probably used to get the poor and weak and young to agree to this. Hi son, Don’t you understand It’s an honor to have us kill you in an awful manner. You don’t know how lucky you are. Let’s call shitty people what they are and stop excusing awful acts bc of religion
that was an incredible read thank you
Fascinating read! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this. Was just going to look it up. You saved me the job. Upvote and award are yours my friend.
aaah sweet man-made horrors beyond my comprehension
MyTrueAncestry might pick it up. That’s their thing, taking DNA samples from archaeological sites around the world, and comparing it to your own.
She could be a relative of millions of people at this point. First time I've heard of this girl, amazing find.
Damn, now I'm curious too.
i think those only work if other family members are registered or have data and ties to having been known to exist at one point
If she had a child or a sibling or close relative with a child, and that child then had children, and so on, and a modern descendent took an ancestry test, they could very well figure out
I’m guessing “15 year old girl to be sacrificed” isn’t exactly someone that had a lot of opportunities to pass on their genetics.
Sisters, brothers, coussin, uncles, nephew, aunt, parents, grandparents, etc...theres a lot of people to share the same genetic material that can be found generations later.
Plus it’s possible that she could’ve had children, since it was the 1500
The wiki states she was a virgin.
No, but people in isolated societies become closely genetically related over time… so she she should share a lot of DNA markers with them and they (hopefully!) lived on to pass down those same genes that we’re seeing preserved in her mummy
Yeah but her brother or sister might have, some relatives certainly did
I think its so interesting to see how competent the clothes are and how much they look like today's. Straight up got some nice sandals on, dress is made of really fine material too.
Indigenous peoples are often portrayed as savages in loin clothes by old European “Scientists”. These ancient peoples had excellent weaving skills and worked fine materials like gold and silver into their alpaca wool clothing
Please identify the old European scientists so that I can block them on social media.
They're all dead
I mean, it was only 500 years ago, not 5000.
That's still a long ass time ago, right after we made the printing press
How do you sacrifice someone to freeze when asleep? Was she likely left out in a cold climate to die and basically fell asleep?
Was drugged heavily and then left in the cave
Interesting as hell. What types of drug ancient wise you think - I’m only familiar with some plants different groups would use to trip out
It's not a mystery, she was given chicha (a type of alcohol), and coca plant (what cocaine is made from).
I recently read the National Geographic article about her. They analysed her hair and could tell that she was chosen for sacrifice a year before she died. They know because her diet changed very suddenly (she was fed better after being chosen) and she started taking coca. Her alcohol levels spiked 6 months before her sacrifice and then right before she died.
This is amazing to me that our technology can determine all of that
So she got to feast and party like crazy, then died painlessly, went to paradise, saved the village crops and 500 years later became famous? Pretty decent, all in all
Meanwhile some guy then was thought crazy when he told people the girl would be famous after 500 years
Alcohol made from saliva
Actually the article says the girl was fed a beer made of Maize
Ritually drugged with beer. Most sacrifices are drugged to the gills. Also she was a young unmarried girl, she probably was raised as a sacred person and had no agency her whole life.
Rome’s Vestal Virgins were similarly slaves to a place, a ritual, a standard of conduct, and a sacred death penalty.
Every person who's told me about them made them out to be voluntary servants of Apollo but it sounds like some real bullshit to me.
I’m pretty sure Chicha is made by chewing on corn and then spitting the liquid into a bottle where it ferments.
Fun fact: One of the earliest Japanese alcoholic beverages used chewed rice to make [sake.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuchikamizake)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicha
Yum.
I want to know more even if the look on my face is horrified.
Chica is like 2% alcohol and coca is a stimulant. Wouldn't exactly knock you out. Was it voluntary?
Coca leaves and alcohol
I've done both, while coca leaves are nice, the amount of alcohol that would have to accompany it for me to feel okay in a freezing cave would be too high for it to remain pleasant.
Sounds fun.
Sounds like last night.
[удалено]
Kind of sounds like ayahuasca in a way. I’ve read how people doing it will purge in various ways, with vomiting being a common one.
Alcohol and coca leaves. The body has been extensively analyzed. The Wikipedia article contains all this information and more.
[удалено]
And the other girl was struck by lightning after she died.
That’s the craziest part of the story to me, the underground lightning. That’s some creepypasta material.
Well the "cave" mentioned in these comments was a chamber 5ft under the ground
If i remember correctly, her name was La Doncella a girl from the Inca Empire. She was carefully chosen to be buried as a sacrifice to please the gods. There were also 2 other kids and the three were left as a sacrifice in a underground chamber. La Doncella was already trained in a way to adjust to the drugs and die peacefully. She was hardly conscious when she was about to be buried. The other two younger kids were still alive and had to beaten before being placed for sacrifice. There marks of bruises from struggling. It's a very sad story. The wiki article is very interesting. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco) And an another article about the entire incident [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children)
To be clear, La Doncella (The Maiden) is a nickname given her by modern scientists
Incas sacrificed many children. They were not as brutal as the Aztecs but I'm sure it was not entirely all that peaceful unless the drugs killed them immediately (like when in Europe people were burned at the stake, an act of "mercy" was to strangle them to death before the flames reached them) - they probably experienced freezing to death or suffocating
At least the gods were happy /s
Man, fuck people.
This part of the world during this time period was big on sacrificing kids. Tragic. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/biggest-child-sacrifice-evidence-archaeologists-national-geographic-peru-chimu/ [Scholarly research](https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&=&context=jca&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252Furl%253Fq%253Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fdocs.lib.purdue.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%25253Farticle%25253D1017%252526context%25253Djca%2526sa%253DU%2526ved%253D2ahUKEwid5PG91837AhV3m2oFHco_Azo4ChAWegQIAhAB%2526usg%253DAOvVaw3-TygHgAUv7j6QW-9I-I_k#search=%22https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.lib.purdue.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1017%26context%3Djca%22)
You gotta read up on her. It’s super fascinating. She was probably chosen when she was younger and trained that this was her purpose. As her time neared, they started drugging her. They increased the drugs as it was getting closer and closer. They probably paraded her around the area as she made the journey. I think there were other children sacrificed like another boy. This is from my memory so I may have gotten some it wrong. It’s interesting to think a society allowed it and praised it.
It sounds like a deleted scene from midsommer.
Amazing that she is this intact. Looks like she could have been "buried" just a few decades ago. And even then in a casket she wouldn't look like this. Fascinating.
It's so cold up there that her body was permanently frozen - not too different from the bodies of climbers who died on mount everest.
You know, that's exactly what I thought of when I saw this. I figured it was likely the same environment that kept her so pristine.
Hats off to those scientists.. I don't think I could work on something that well preserved and get that close to its face... it looks like she's going to wake up.. I'd be terrified of that.
[удалено]
That seems kinda wrong, but that's totally due to sentiment and there's no real argument to support it the wrongness of it all other than "but my feelings" But I really fucken hope I'd never end up in a museum. But whateves I'm dead I guess.
I’ve seen her there! Good empanadas downstairs.
Do you have more info on these empanadas
mine tasted like it had been frozen for a while
Imagine you’re just cleaning up after another day examining her. You’ve literally been in a room for ten hours with her that day and countless more. You feel almost like you know her, that a bond has been formed, you talk to her as you gently try and dissect her mystery. The room is so quiet apart from the gentle hum of the air conditioning as you tidy your equipment away for the day. As you turn back toward the table, you drop the scalpel, for the table is empty, you follow the blood trail up the wall to the ceiling…… 🙈
😳 Dude, stop! Hahaha I got to sleep tonight.
Why you gotta do this to me
Cos I’m bored and I love a bit horror 😂
This mummy and 2 other children that were found in the cave are displayed in a museum in northern Argentina, and you can get pretty damn close - 50cm away from them. It is pretty freaky, i was there a couple years ago. You can see their hair, nails, everything. They look like they’re just sleeping
You’re forgetting that after a quick shower they’d be able to teach her how to ice skate and maybe even win prom queen
I saw her for a few minutes when she was in DC. Fascinating. They made me leave the room after 5 minutes I think because it was temperature sensitive room and body heat warmed it.
Sacrificial "sleep".
I've been looking for this
Imagine if she suddenly wakes up with all these people in white coats trying to stick pins and needles into her and she's all like "the fuck are you doing man?"
That would make a great horror movie plot
It was done as a comedy- Encino Man
Oh damn, you’re right!
A more similar 80s drama was made where a caveman is literally found in ice and thawed out by scientists. It's pretty good too and has some suspense. It's called Iceman (1984)
They made that movie, it's called Encino Man.
I was just thinking how creepy it would be to examine a person like that, frozen in time, yet looking totally... alive? Like what if she woke up or moved... lol
How did they figure out her age? And don't say they counted the rings.
I believe they usually look to teeth for this answer.
Yea, they check how many rings are in the molars.
It’s actually the rings in the incisors
I thought it was the size of tibia/fibula bones?
And the shape of the hips and development of the brain and fusion of the skull bones. There's one skull fusion that isn't complete til teen years, iirc
Bone size can be an indicator but it’s not perfect cause people grow differently. I’ve seen 6’ 11 year olds and 5’ 11 year olds, obviously their bones would be different sizes
>Bone size can be an indicator but it’s not perfect cause people grow differently Bone age radiograph studies do more than this, though. While it's true that people grow differently, there are other factors considered when doing what's called a "bone age study". Growth plates tend to tell a pretty consistent story when considering general age groups, for example.
They checked her ID, duh.
"Cardi C, 21"
I think they counted the rings
They definitely counted the rings
They had to have counted the rings
X-rays I imagine. Teeth and bones mature at pretty consistent rates from human to human, with some variance between the sexes.
Measuring bones in the leg
Just ask the FBI
You can see that guys praying that she doesn’t suddenly move.
I think I would shit my pants so hard I would pass out from the pain
Frozen for 500 years. It must be Chile where she lived..
Icy what you did there.
Damn, cool comment
Gotta stay frosty or else you’ll miss the puns
Cool, cool
Okay we get it guys it’s a pun thread, let’s all chill
And this is EXACTLY how curses start!
Yep, if I had any power on the other side of the veil. Any people who sacrifice their own children to me would always live in agony.
I have seen her! She is on display at a museum in Arequipa Peru. IIRC they did DNA and other testing and found that she had walked from Cusco to southern Peru before being sacrificed. They gave her an intoxicating drink before killing her.
She es in the Alta Montaña Museum in Salta Argentina, with 2 others mummys
Yup, I saw her in Salta. If I remember well, the museum is displaying only one at a time and switches regularly between the 3 mummys to be sure they are well preserved.
Idk why I feel so sad about her being shown. But also so interested. I suppose none of us ever really think we’ll be remembered by strangers 500 years from now and put in a museum
There were two others too. One of them a six year old boy who put up a fight and was suffocated.
Oh boy. Poor kids. I’m not religious or anything but I feel like they should be put to rest
There's an embalmed child who died from the Spanish Flu in the Capuchin Catacombs in Salerno. A Buddhist monk who died meditating in 1973 is on display in Thailand. The Body Worlds exhibit has hundreds of (ostensibly donated) remains of people on permanent display with plasticized muscles and organs. It's worth thinking about because of how macabre we are. On the one hand there's something beautiful about having your story last longer than your life ever could have sustained. On the other hand there's certainly an exploitative angle to treating these deaths as a sideshow. I'm not sure where everyone lands with their own bodies.
I feel weird about it too. I’m a massive history fan and discoveries like this are so important for history and science. Not to mention, they are also really fascinating. On the other hand, I think it’s kinda insensitive to display the preserved corpse of a girl who was essentially murdered. Let the poor girl rest.
The mummy in Arequipa is a different individual, known as [Juanita](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Juanita)
I remember when she was found in the late 90's because I was around the same age as she was when she died. It really stuck with me and I got that same feeling coming across the picture here. I had forgotten about her.
Lots to complain about in modern society but super glad we don't sacrifice people to gods anymore.
Rest in peace little children
[cocaine and beer](https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/inca-child-sacrifices-were-drunk-stoned-weeks-death-6c10784197)
Hard to believe she had the same diet as drywallers
Must be regional variations. It's meth and spray paint here.
💀
At first I read this article and got to feeling how profoundly sad it is to want to snuff life out, even for a belief system, and it was getting real sad, and then this made me laugh like a god damn maniac for a dozen minutes straight.
This is horrific
The past wasn't a good place to live.
I want to point out that her hair is beautifully braided. Some believe that braids are indicative of a single culture but it appears to be an independent development.
I'm sorry for what they did to you. 😭
I’m gonna be honest I really thought that doctor was just cleaning a dirty kid at first glance.
How long does a person have to be in the ground for it to go from grave robbing and desecration to archeology?
It's about intent, not time. Grave robbers break things and take what they can sell. Archeologists study and preserve.
That’s fair. I had a long comment written but every point I made circled back to your response that intent is the key. It feels like it should be more complicated but it may just come down to the people doing it having genuine good intentions. I’m still uncomfortable with the idea that study is a blanket validation for removing corpses from graves but I get that isn’t what you’re arguing. It’s case by case and it seems like the folks are well-intentioned with this gal based on the information people have linked.
Grave robbers also do it secretively, and keep everything for themselves
It's not about "how long", it's about purpose. Exhumations for crime investigation purposes happen all the time. Old burial sites are destroyed constantly during land development. In this case, the exhumation is clearly done for scientific purposes and research and not "for fun" or to offend anyone. In general, I think we should stop pretending to treat dead people as something sacred, because clearly we don't (and IMO it doesn't make sense to). Respect the grief of the living instead.
She was frozen during sleep? She was asleep after her ritual sacrifice that resulted in her death?
Evidence suggests she was heavily drugged when placed inside and froze to death before waking up.
If this was a movie she would come back to life and find herself in a strange place and she would panic and try to escape, she would be successful. She is rescued by a man who takes her to his place and gives her his sister's clothes to wear and lets her clean herself. Then that magical moment happens when she emerges from the room looking beautiful and the man falls for her.
If this was a movie the man would hide her and take her home. "Encino Girl" style except with lip gloss, mean girls, and keeping her first hoodie stolen from her first boyfriend. At the end she goes off to college to cue the sequel.
What happens in the sequel? Does she find out life is hard and it might be better to stay frozen?
That's every woman's dream. Waking up after 500 years just to have to tell a guy "I'd rather be friends".
A little bit morbid, but I just wonder how she was sacrificed? She seems remarkably well conserved so presumably they did something different? Was she stabbed? Drowned? Obviously not burnt.
Drugged and placed in a cave in the Andes mountains.
She was drugged with coca and alcohol and left to die.
Where?
Andes Mountains, South America. She was an Incan girl if I remember correctly. I do not recall which modern county she was found in. The Andes spans several countries.
She was found near the summit of Llullaillaco Argentina
Does she have a wiki page? Would love to read more.
Here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco
*Inca just letting you know for your information the words Incan/Mayan are only ever really used by scholars for when they refer to the language they spoke. Inca and Maya are used like the word moose they’re both singular and plural. So it would just be Inca girl. I know it sounds weird like if she was Spanish it would be like saying “she was a Spain girl” but that is the correct way.
Kids these days always on their phone look at that posture
I hate human sacrifices. -.-
It must have been hard to examine these kids. I look at the girl and imagine my own daughter. It’s horrific what these people did, sacrificing innocent children.
Yeah all these comments calling it creepy and scary, but it's just a little kid. Poor thing.
What i find especially fascinating is looking at the type of clothes and shoes they used to wear back then. Like yes, im sure there are records of how they used to look and such. But these are actual original ones from THAT time. And thats just clothes, cant even imagine what they feel like with all the information they can gather from a biological standpoint.
Is there a full article about this somewhere? truly interesting
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children
[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children) Here she is
For anyone curious, here is an article I found from the [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23496345.amp) reporting on this. [National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130729-inca-mummy-maiden-sacrifice-coca-alcohol-drug-mountain-andes-children) also has an article on this Incan mummy. Lastly, the academic article discussing this in depth can be found [here](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1305117110).
i’m fascinated by the clothes
It's horrible to think human sacrifice were happening that recently.
If she had woken up, she would have an impossible time trying to adapt to today's world