Sunday visit to the Freezer

Our intended visit of the “ice maiden” on Sunday afternoon did not work as she was not home.  Juanita -- as the Inca mummy found on Mt. Ampato at 20,700 feet by Joliet, Illinois native Johan Reinhard in 1995 is known -- is in the local laboratory for further examination and will be there until May.   Juanita is kept at the Catholic University's Museum of Andean Sanctuaries (Universidad Catolica de Santa Marisa Museo Santuarios Andinos) which is a short walk down the street from the main plaza in Arequipa (Plaza de Armas).  Since Juanita was not present and the refrigerators were not working for the other mummies, we purchased tickets for half price.  However, it was an interesting tour led by an English speaking guide.

Technically, Juanita is not a mummy since her body after death was frozen and thus she became an instant celebrity as scientists waited in line to examine her intact body.  She was a sacrifice to the gods of the mountains, but was probably a willing sacrifice as she would go live with the gods.  It is assumed that she was somewhat drugged and somewhat disabled by the high altitude, but she was killed by a violent blow to her head (supposedly as she knelt in prayer).  She had a full stomach of vegetables, cocoa leaves, and chicha (the low-grade corn alcohol) when she died.  Her death is thought to have occurred around 1470 or about 550 years ago.

She was about 14 years of age and was a healthy young girl.  She had fine teeth, good muscle and bone structure and no evidence of disease. She could have been raised from birth knowing she was going to become immortal as a sacrifice to the “apu” of the mountain to assure the mountain would not damage the lives of the Incas.   “Juanita” was a name applied to the mummy as it is the feminine form of “Juan” which is the Spanish equivalent of “Johan” the name of the explorer who found the mummy.

Below are two pictures taken from Wikipedia (cameras were not allowed in the museum). The first shows Juanita's body in a fetal position with wraps around the body. The picture was taken when Jaunita was found and it shows that her face had been exposed to the elements since the melt from a glacier had dislodged the body from her grave site. The 2nd picture is of her frozen hand.

Some of the people standing in line to view and study her body were researchers at Johns Hopkins (sorry, Mayo, you weren't on the list as far as we know).  They were the ones to ascertain that her death came from a blow to the head.  And other researchers have tried to ascertain her heritage.   

Taken from Wikipedia:   “According to the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), her closest kin are the Ngobe people of Panama, but she also shared genetic patterns found in people from Taiwan and Korea. Scientists at TIGR examined two mitochondrial DNA D loop sequences and found that Hypervariable region 1 (HV1) was consistent with Haplogroup A, one of the four Native American gene groups. Hypervariable region 2 (HV2) included a unique sequence not found in any of the current mitochondrial DNA databases.” 

This unique sequence could help identify today’s “relatives” if people are found who contain that sequence.

The museum exhibit displayed artifacts -- pottery, textiles (wrappings used to encase the mummies), ornamens  --  that were found with Juanita and with other mummies that Johan Reihard has found in Peru (a total of 14).  In fact, the mountains that we view from our terrace have yielded nine additional mummies (six from El Misti and 3 from Picchu Picchu).  However, these mummies were found at lower altitudes, so the bodies had decomposed; thus, they have not excited the scientific community as Juanita has.   The exhibit is shown with very dim lights and our guide was a soft speaker, but the visit  -- even though we didn’t actually see Juanita -- was worthwhile.

The picture below is taken from the web site http://www.merrellperu.com/tag/volcan/ and shows Juanita unwrapped.