THE grizzly final moments of a famous group of child “ice mummies” has been revealed.
Experts have been puzzled for decades about the untimely deaths of Inca children that were sacrificed.
Scans reveal new clues about the “violent” end of the Inca”ice mummies”Credit: AFP
The mummies have long caught the attention of the world due to how well they’re preservedCredit: Reuters
The children were killed as part of a ritual called Capacocha, which took place about 500 years ago.
This was done so the youths could act as “messengers to the gods”.
Their remains were left left on remote peaks in the Andes, Peru.
Because of the high-altitude, their bodies were frozen and remarkably well preserved, including their brain, clothing and even hairstyles.
Now scientists have carried out CT scans on four of the ice mummies to better understand their last moments.
One of them is the well-known Lady of Ampato, also called the Ice Maiden and Momia Juanita, who was uncovered back in 1995.
The others included three girls aged between six and 10 years-old.
It was long assumed that the group were left to die.
But it appears they were subjected to a fatal head trauma before.
One was killed because of a “blunt force blow” which made her death “instantaneous and violent”.
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And Lady of Ampato had more injuries than previously believed too, with fractures detected in her pelvis and chest.
But what’s remarkable is evidence of deliberate mummification.
Experts say one of the girls’ bodies was put through “post-mortem manipulation”, with missing bones and displaced skeletal elements, as well as stones and fragments of textiles stuffed inside the belly and chest.
And contrary to popular belief, the children were not always in great health either.
Clues from the 8-year-old girl revealed signs of a chronic illness.
“This may reflect the general living conditions within the Inca Empire, but it may also indicate that European chroniclers did not fully understand what the Incas themselves considered ideal,” archaeologist Dagmara Socha told Live Science.
The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.