Juanita is an Inca mummy of a girl who died sometime between 1440 and 1450.
She was discovered in Peru in 1995.
It is believed that Juanita was a human sacrifice to the Inca mountain gods (apus). She was then buried by the Inca priests atop Mount Ampato in Peru.
This young girl's body was taken to the United States and went through to an autopsy. Scientists reached the following conclusions about Juanita:
she had died at the age of 14, between approximately 1440 and 1450;
she had had a height of 4 feet, 7 inches;
she had weighed 80 pounds at the time of death;
she was slender in build and body shape;
she had not suffered of any illness;
she had had perfect denture and strong bones;
she had had a good and well-balanced diet;
she had fasted one day before the sacrifice;
she had a 2-inch tear in the skull; and
she had died from bluntforce trauma to the head.
These discoveries seem to support the theory that during the Inca empire, human sacrifice rituals were still practiced. 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."
