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The mummy was remarkably well-preserved throughout five centuries, making her one of the more important mummy finds in recent years. When found in Mount Ampato (part of the Andes Cordillera ), the mummy weighed, according to Reinhard, approximately 80 lbs. Reinhard and his partner then came to the realization that due to the heavy body mass, the mummy's flesh must have been frozen. This was an extrodinary discovery because it allowed biological tests to be run on the Lung , Liver , and Muscle Tissue , revealing new insights on Inca health and nutrition during the reign of Sapa Inca Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui . THE DISCOVERY OF ''JUANITA'' Johann Reinhard had made various ascents in several mountain ranges like the Himalayas (in Nepal ) and the Peruvian Andes. As an archaeologist, he had studied Machu Picchu , Chavín and the Nazca Lines . He became very familiar with the Peruvian heights and the nature of the country's native inhabitants. For him and his parter, Miguel Zárate, a guide from Arequipa , it became a regular routine to climb the Apus, (the mountain gods in Inca Mythology ). In 1995, during an ascent of Mt. Ampato, Reinhard and Zarate surprisingly found inside the summit crater a bundle that had fallen down from an Inca site when the ride had collapsed due to the melting caused by volcanic ash that has fallen from the nearby erupting volcano of Sabancaya. To their astonishment the bundle turned out to contain a remarkably well-preserved mummy of a young girl. In addition, they found--strewn about the mountain slope down which the mummy had fallen--many items that had been left as offerings to the Inca gods, such as statues and food items. A couple of days later, the mummy and the objects were taken to Arequipa; the remains of the mummy were initially kept in a special refrigerator. In 1995, before Reinhard and Zarate left on their journey, they had a traditional maize beer offering to the gods wishing for a safe and successful journey. JUANITA AND THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY The mummy caused a sensation in the scientific world due to the well-preserved state in which it was found. Between May and June of 1996, the mummy was exhibited in the headquarters of National Geographic Society , in Washington , in a specially acclimatized conservation/display unit. In its June edition of 1996, National Geographic also included an article dedicated to the discovery of Juanita. WHO WAS JUANITA? This young girl's cadaver was taken to the United States and went through to a virtual autopsy in the laboratories of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore , Maryland . The mummy had Tomographies taken as well as X-ray examinations. Scientists reached the following conclusions about Juanita:
JUANITA'S DNA SAMPLES The scientists of Maryland's Institute For Genomic Research (TIGR), subjected Juanita's body to laboratory tests and were able to recover the heart tissues of the young girl. These tests served for:
JUANITA'S WHEREABOUTS Juanita's body is now housed in the Museum of the Universidad Católica De Santa María of Arequipa, Peru. She is currently encased in a special glass box and kept at constant cold temperatures to continue conserving her body. The interior of this urn is to a temperature of -19.2 °C and -19.5 °C to avoid the dehydration of the cadaver. OTHER INCA MUMMIES In the same museum and along with Juanita are “Urpicha” ('Palomita' Little dove in Spanish, a mummy found on the volcano Pichu Pichu of Arequipa); “Sarita” (found on the Sarasara volcano, between Arequipa and Ayacucho ), and other five mummies found in El Misti volcano, also near Arequipa. SACRIFICES WITHOUT ANTHROPOPHAGY These discoveries confirm that during the Inca Empire human sacrifice rituals were also practiced, defying common theories of some archaelogists and Historians who deny it. Indeed the mummy was, in Reinhard's opinion, "a young sacrifice victim killed by Inca priests to appease the gods, especially the gods of the mountain." What indeed is proven is that during this epoch neither Anthropophagy or Necrophagy were practiced; on the contrary, both were punished. Indeed, one of the reasons why the Incas didn't conquer the Antis (a tribe of the Amazon Rainforest ), apart from the hostility of the Amazon territory and the bad weather, seems to have been the Antis' practice of anthropophagy that made them "unworthy of being governed by the Inca." TRIVIA
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