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September 11, 2007 —The mummy of an ancient Inca girl sits literally frozen in sleep at a museum in Argentina.
The mummy, called La Doncella or The Maiden, is that of a teenage girl who died more than 500 years ago in a ritual sacrifice in the Andes Mountains.
The girl and two other children were left on a mountaintop to succumb to the cold as offerings to the gods, according to the archaeologists who found the mummified remains in Argentina in 1999.
National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Johan Reinhard, who co-led the expedition, described the discovery at the time as "the best preserved of any mummy I've seen." (National Geographic News is a division of the National Geographic Society.)
The High Country Archaeological Museum in Salta, Argentina, unveiled La Doncella, the oldest of the three victims, for its first public viewing on September 6.
The three Inca children were left to freeze to death as a sacrifice to the gods, anthropologist Johan Reinhard said.
"[They] weren't being sacrificed to feed the gods," Reinhard told National Geographic News in 2005. "They were being sacrificed to enter into the realm of the gods. It was considered a great honor.
"These children didn't die in the sense that we think: They went to live in a paradise with the gods. … It was a transition into a better life, one that these children were greatly honored [to have]."
Originally posted by queenannie38
Yes I think he did.
Poor gal. I hope she eventually lives that down.
Not Hillary. I mean the ice maiden.
Chinese countess? The one that was buried in layer after layer of crypts?
[edit on 9/16/2007 by queenannie38]
Originally posted by andy1972
The girl died from a blow to the occipital region of the head causing a massive hemorrhage...rapid and better than freezing to death i suppose..not a cold long death..
Originally posted by Byrd
There's a lot being rewritten in history in respect to the South American people. Mummies like this are helping provide a fuller picture of the people and their diets and technology.