Salta, Argentina — three Inca children were entombed on a bleak and frigid mountaintop 500 years ago as a religious sacrifice…
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| A scientist carefully extracts a hair from the sacrificial victim known as the “Llullaillaco Maiden,” in a labroom that is kept at a constant freezing temperature |
Unearthed in 1999 from the 22,000-foot summit of Mount Llullaillaco, a volcano 300 miles west of here near the Chilean border, their frozen bodies were among the best-preserved mummies ever found, with internal organs intact, blood still present in the heart and lungs, and skin and facial features mostly unscathed. No special effort had been made to preserve them. The cold and the dry, thin air did all the work. They froze to death as they slept, and 500 years later still looked like sleeping children, not mummies.
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Scientists examine a 15-year-old girl who lived in the Inca Empire, was sacrificed and remained frozen for 500 years
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