The Llullaillaco Mummies
Around 4,900 meters up the slope of volcanic Mount Llullaillaco in Argentina, far away from any settlement, is a lonely Inca cemetery. The mystery of its position has never been solved. It could be its occupants were attendants of an Inca shrine, which is situated 25 meters from the chilly summit of the mountain. The shrine itself contained a mystery that is still revealing itself. In 1999, an expedition to the mountain discovered the perfectly preserved bodies of three Inca children who died 500 years ago.
The children were a girl of around 15, and a younger boy and girl aged between 6-7 years. They were deliberately left in the shrine after death. Each was carefully positioned cross-legged with various textile objects positioned around them. The freezing temperatures, coupled with the lack of oxygen at such a high altitude and the antiseptic properties of the volcanic ash packed around the bodies had perfectly preserved their hair, skin, and clothes so that they appeared to be sleeping rather than dead.
The children are the best preserved natural mummies in the world. But their death was anything but natural. The boy had been suffocated and blood on his cloak suggests he may have resisted. Analysis of the girls suggests they died of the freezing temperatures while heavily sedated with cocaine. The eldest girl actually died still chewing the drug. Analysis of the bodies also suggests that the children experienced a sudden change of lifestyle two years before their deaths, sometime between 1430-1520 AD. High-status foods such as maize and llama meat were introduced to their diets as was increasing amounts of alcohol and coca.
The children were being groomed as sacrifices. The eldest girl was of particular importance, as she enjoyed the best lifestyle of all. But the events that prompted the purposeful preparation of these three human sacrifices remain unknown.