The Ice Maiden
Background of the Ice Maiden
Dr. Johan Reinhard discovered Juanita, the Ice Maiden on the top of the Mount Ampato near Arequipa, Peru in September 1995. She was just 12 to 14 years old when she was sacrificed.
She had been lying under the snow of Mount Ampato for about 500 years, until a nearby volcano caused Ampato’s snowcap to melt and her body was revealed. Many items as offerings to the gods were also found with her body. Two other children’s bodies were discovered near her.
What’s special about her
She was the first best-preserved mummy of all Inca mummies found in the Andes. Her body had been transported to United States in 1996 and Japan in 1999.
Preserving a frozen mummy is not an easy task; especially the Ice Maiden being a delicate mummy, is a tough job for the scientists. First, Dr Reinhard ad his colleagues experienced a hard time moving Juanita’s body to Catholic University from where she was found. Next, they had to carefully remove the numerous textiles remained attached to her frozen body without damaging Juanita or the textiles. With their tireless effort they succeed.
The Ice Maiden has gone through many complex and delicate preserving processes, but she couldn’t escape the fate of deteriorating, because of her foreign tours. According to Hidal Vidal of the National Museum of Archaeology and History in Lima, Juanita’s skin has begun to turn colour from a natural beige to a darker brown.
This famous mummy had met President Clinton in 1996 at a dinner in Stamford, Connecticut.