“Juanita,” an Inca teenager who was sacrificed in a ritual at the top of the Andes more than 500 years ago, is considered Peru’s most famous mummy. This Tuesday (24), an international team of researchers presented an impressive digital reconstruction of the girl’s face.
The bust was displayed during a ceremony at the Museum of Andean Sanctuaries at the Catholic University of Santa Maria in Arequipa. It was designed by Peruvian and Polish scientists and executed by a Swedish sculptor specializing in facial construction.
What is known about Juanita:
- The young woman was between 13 and 15 years old when she died between 1440 and 1450;
- She was about 1.40 m tall and weighed 35 kg. She showed no signs of malnutrition.
- The snowcovered remains were found in 1995 by North American anthropologist Johan Reinhard more than six thousand meters above sea level on the summit of the Ampato volcano in the Andes.
- The cause of death was probably a severe blow to the right occipital lobe during a sacrificial ritual.
Image of the Juanita mummy as found in 1995. Photo credit: Gourami Watcher/Wikimedia Commons
According to the Associated Press news agency, Oscar Nilsson, a Swedish sculptor who specializes in 3D facial reconstructions of ancient people, said that modeling the face of the mummy, also called the “Inca Ice Maiden,” took more than 400 hours. The result was a silicone bust of a young woman with pronounced cheekbones, black eyes and tanned skin.
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Stages of reconstruction of the mummy’s face
In order for the artist to create Juanita’s face, the scientists’ research went through several phases. According to Dagmara Socha, a Polish bioarchaeologist at the Center for Andean Studies at the University of Warsaw, the first of these was to obtain a replica of the girl’s skull.
DNA analysis, body scans and studies of ethnological and physical characteristics were then carried out, which made it possible to identify the young woman’s face. Further studies have been carried out on Juanita, which will provide a better understanding of her life and the Inca culture.
In addition to this mummy, Reinhard discovered the remains of 14 other people who were murdered in sacrifices high in the Andes. Three children were found at the bottom of the icy well of the Llullaillaco volcano in Argentina.