Emily Chan
In 1995, a team of archaeologists discovered a frozen body buried in the Andes mountains in what is now Peru. The body was of an Incan girl who was killed in a sacrificial ritual over 500 years ago.
After examining the girl’s mummified remains, experts determined that she was between thirteen and fifteen years old when she died, sometime between 1440 and 1450 C.E.
She weighed around 77 pounds and was about four feet and six inches tall. She showed no signs of malnutrition at the time of her death.
The girl was found specifically on the Ampato volcano, dressed in alpaca wool ceremonial robes. Her remains were accompanied by 37 ceramic objects, all decorated with geometric figures.
It is thought that the girl was sacrificed in an Incan ritual called “capacocha,” which involved offering children and animals as a sacrifice to the gods.
The presence of ash near where her body was discovered has led experts to believe that she was sacrificed after a volcanic eruption.
The archaeologists who found her gave her the nicknames of “Juanita” and “Lady of Ampato.” Her clothing, dark hair, fingernails, and teeth were well-preserved, but her face, having been exposed to the elements, was no longer intact.
Since the discovery of the girl, researchers have been on a mission to learn more about her life. A CT scan showed that the cause of her death was a severe blow to the head.
Using all this information, Oscar Nilsson, a sculptor and archaeologist based in Sweden, has managed to reconstruct the girl’s facial features to see what she would have looked like when she was alive. These details were crucial to building a realistic sculpture.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
