Yet Her Body Did Not Decay
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.
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