Mummified 12 year old remains fresh for decades

 

 Yet Her Body Did Not Decay

TheRealMojiDanisa

Generally, what we know about Mummies or 

the 

act of mummification is restricted to Egypt and 

the Pyramids where the Mummies of ancient 

Phaereos and other nobles are preserved, 

however there are other cultures where the 

dead were preserved and cared for as if they 

were still alive. 

The Incas were originally American Indian 

people who settled in the highlands of Peru. 

They belonged to the Andean culture and were 

also known for building one of the greatest 

empires during the 1440s. The Incas were 

famed for architecture, great engineering and a 

structural form of governance. Inca relics still 

abound till modern day with Archeologists still 

excavating to know more about the history of 

this once great empire.

The Incas were also ancestor worshippers 

hence they believed in life after death, 

preserving their dead after draping them with 

expensive jewelries, fine clothes and living fine 

pottery in their burial sites. From time to time, 

they brought out these mummies to perform 

some ceremonies and even fed them. 

Mummies were consulted during such 

ceremonies and given food and drinks, a 

culture which is close to the African tradition of 

ancestor worship. You will recall that in some 

parts of Africa, drinks are offered to ancestors 

before being taken. African Elders would 

usually break kola nuts and pour drinks on the 

floor for the ancestors. 

The ancient Incas however, took it a notch 

higher, actually physically moving the ancestor 

to the ceremony. 

Archeologists have been studying the Inca 

Mummies and learning about the culture. 

One of the most amazing discoveries in recent 

times, is the body of a maiden which has been 

preserved for 500years. 

According to the Smithsonian Magazine:  

"At least 500 years old, the Inca maiden, found 

at the top of the Andes is so well-preserved 

that 

visitors find themselves whispering, for fear of 

waking her. 

"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 who were 

probably sacrificial offerings to the gods, were 

left on a mountaintop and exposed to the chilly 

cold, archaeologists who found their 

mummified remains in Argentina said. 

Sithsonian Magazine explains that "La 

Doncella 

was found in 1999 dressed in a ceremonial 

tunic and adorned with a headpiece, tokens of 

her new status as a messenger to the heavens. 

The girl had also been given corn liquor, likely 

to 

put her to sleep, scientists say, and her mouth 

still held fragments of coca leaves, which the 

Inca chewed to lessen the effects of altitude 

sickness.

Some say the dead never really die. In the case 

of the young maiden sacrificed to the gods and 

left to on a cold mountain in the Andes, her 

body has refused to be corrupted by death.