High In The Andes, Researchers Have Found 500-year-old Child Mummies Revealing Things They Did Not Expect

Frozen high in the Andes for more than five centuries, several Inca child mummies are still telling their story. New CT scans are giving researchers a closer look at their health and the way their bodies were prepared after death.

The remains were found near the summits of remote mountains in Peru, where extreme altitude and dry conditions preserved them almost intact. These children were sacrificed during the capacocha ritual, one of the most important ceremonies in the Inca Empire, and placed near mountain shrines so they could serve as spiritual messengers.

Today, non-invasive imaging tools are helping scientists examine these bodies in ways that were impossible when they were first discovered. According to a new study, researchers recently used CT scans to analyze four mummies recovered from the volcanoes Ampato and Sara Sara.

The Children Were Not “Perfect”

The study, published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, looked at four young individuals: girls aged about 8, 10 and 14, along with the well-known “Ice Maiden”, also called Momia Juanita. Her body was discovered in 1995 near the summit of Mount Ampato, nearly 19,000 feet (5,800 meters) above sea level.

Medical scans revealed that some of the children had clear signs of illness. The 8-year-old girl showed an enlarged esophagus that may indicate Chagas disease, a parasitic infection still present in the region today. The scans also revealed scarring in her lungs, which researchers think may have been caused by tuberculosis.

These results contrast with early descriptions written by Spanish chroniclers after the conquest. They often portrayed sacrificial victims as flawless. Archaeologist Dagmara Socha from the University of Warsaw noted that:

“Our findings show that chroniclers’ accounts should be treated with caution.” She added, “Although historical sources describe the children as physically perfect and without flaws, modern scientific analyses reveal a very different reality.”

Evidence the Body Was Prepared Earlier

One discovery stood out in the scans of the 10-year-old girl found near Mount Ampato. Researchers noticed that several of her internal organs were missing.

According to the research cited by Live Science, the cavities inside her chest and abdomen had been filled with stones and pieces of textile. The body was then wrapped and positioned sitting down, with the knees pulled up toward the chin, before being placed near the mountain summit.

Scientists say this is the first evidence that one of the Andean “ice mummies” was deliberately prepared for mummification. The team suggests that this preparation may have been carried out to address what the Inca might have considered physical flaws before the child was placed in the sacred shrine.

“This may reflect the general living conditions within the Inca Empire, but it may also indicate that European chroniclers did not fully understand what the Incas themselves considered ‘ideal,’” noted Socha.

Children Offered to the Mountain Gods

Historical sources describe how the Inca selected young people for these ceremonies and placed their bodies on high mountains after the sacrifice. The CT scans suggest that the four children in the study died from a strong blow to the head, possibly delivered with a wooden club. And as Socha explained, the children were believed to act as intermediaries.

“The evidence suggests that these children … continued to function as mediators between the living community and the divine Apus [Andean deities] long after their deaths.”

Even centuries later, the frozen remains left on these remote peaks are still helping archaeologists understand how ritual, belief and power were intertwined in the Inca world.

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