Mummy of Sacrificed Incan Girl on Display
Mari loves interesting tidbits like this. The mummy of an ancient 15 year old Incan girl found in 1999 high atop a volcanic mountain was put on display Saturday in Argentina.
Hundreds of people packed a museum in Salta, Argentina, to see “la Doncella” — Spanish for “the Maiden” — a 15-year-old girl whose remains were found in 1999 in an icy pit on Llullaillaco volcano, along with a 6-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy.
Scientists believe the so-called Children of Llullaillaco were sacrificed more than 500 years ago in a ceremony marking the annual corn harvest. Dressed in fine clothes and given corn alcohol to put them to sleep, the victims were then left to die at an elevation of 22,080 feet.
“Just this morning we have had more than 700 people come see the exhibit, and we had hundreds yesterday when it opened,” High Mountain Archaeological Museum director Gabriel Miremont said on Thursday.
The mummy is kept in a chamber that pumps chilled air through a low-oxygen atmosphere, simulating the subfreezing conditions where it was found. The other two children are being studied and not on display.
This is a saddening reminder of how far we humans have come. Can you believe humans used to sacrifice other humans for religion?
Haunting, isn’t it? She looks like she’s sleeping…
Interesting Tidbit, Science 
9 September 2007, 21:16
argentina, human sacrifice, incan girl, la doncella, llullaillaco girl, mummy, preserved, Weird StuffYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Yeah it’s crazy what people a couple thousand years ago used to do.
That is so creepy. Isn’t it odd that we would never think of even sacrificing an animal nowadays, and they used to do it with people!
Ah but Mari, we still do. In fact that are many wars being raged right now in the name of religion. The difference now lays in whether or not we’ll slaughter them on an alter or mow them down in the name of some God.
Hannah, many religions still practice animal sacrifice. In fact, in Nepal they recently sacrificed a goat in order to appease their sky god and to make sure that a certain airplane wouldn’t have any more trouble.
Joana got to it before Mari. Indeed, the Nepalese goat sacrifice was what, last week?
Mmm. I know various religions practiced ritual sacrifice in ancient times, but it always seemed like it was done violently or for something rather important. How can you justify sacrificing 3 children just to make sure the corn will grow well? The fact that it was done willingly is rather chilling to me.
I saw this on the BBC News web site and thought the same thing. It’s hard to see her look so peaceful considering the trauma she went through.
That is creepy @_@
@Becca
It it chilling to think that this was done willingly. But do you mean by the sacrificers or the sacrificees?
@Kelly
Well, they said they got them intoxicated so they were asleep and didn’t feel much pain.
Wait wait…They sacrificed themselves for corns?!?!
Ok…I really don’t see the link between corn harvesting and human being sacrificed for it. I feel rather disturbed by that.
Yes i can believe it.. if you know the bible, God told Moses to sacrifice his son which he did but God was really testing him and told him not to… Dont you think people are doing the same thing now w/ Iraq? These suicide bombers being brainwashed by their leaders to do this for their country.. Not exactly for your religion but similar to it.
That is morbidly fascinating, she doesn’t even look like she’s been dead for all that long. And yes, sacrificing is still going on in today’s society, only we use different names for it (pointed at the comments, not post)..
@Callie
Mari doesn’t see the link either…but arguing with the logic of long-dead frozen people doesn’t do much good about the fact.
@Vanessa
Similar, but this is for a different reason. Then again, Mari just thinks that war/politics shouldn’t be compared to religion.
@Hanne
Really, she doesn’t. Perfectly preserved. Ancient Egyptian embalmers eat your hearts out…(Mari knows that was really, truly lame)
Hmm…not too sure that Mari agrees with the people relating this to suicide bombing. It’s the same principle, but the intended end result is VERY different.
Eeek thats quite scary
Whoa! That’s not cool…
pretty scary if you ask me. =[
Creepy, I say. She looks like a doll or something.
And I wouldn’t really compare this to suicide bombings. I mean, I understand why some people would do so, but I agree with you, Mari, the intentions and results between suicide bombings and human sacrifice are very different.
wow! that is a nice article..
wow. it is haunting.
are there not still some distant cultures taht do things like that though? :\
@Kaisa
She does look like a doll. Oh…Mari wishes you hadn’t pointed that out. Mari’s going to have nightmares now…
@Becca
Mari isn’t sure. It’s possible, but Mari doesn’t know if they sacrifice humans. Like Joana said, they still sacrifice goats and animals once in a while…
Eek! That is FREAKY! Yup, I HATE tiny fonts even though I’ve committed that crime before XD Oh and thanks for the tip, I fixed the Cutenews problem, ooh I love the word ‘google’ sounds sooo… googly!
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