A girl from the Inca tribe, who is over 500 years old. This teenage girl of 14-15 years old, who was sacrificed about 500 years ago, for all the past centuries lay in the ice on the top of the six-thousander, which contributed to excellent preservation. Next to her are the frozen bodies of two more young victims: a seven-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl.

In the course of previous studies, it was found that before sacrificing them, for a year the children were fed “elite” foods - maize and dried llama meat, although before that they ate exclusively peasant food, consisting of potatoes and vegetables.

The body of this girl was discovered in 1999. According to rough estimates, her biological age is fourteen to fifteen years and, apparently, she lay in the ice for more than 500 years.

Archaeologists discovered it on the slope of the Llullaillaco volcano at the intersection of Argentina and Chile. Similar mummified remains were found nearby: a seven-year-old boy and a girl about six years old. Scientists did not conduct DNA analysis, but immediately proceeded to the bacterial study of proteins in tissues and concluded that the girl, who outwardly looks completely healthy, has an infection in her body like tuberculosis. This is the first time a lung infection has been found in a mummy. Before that, science did not know such cases.

Scientists from New York University have conducted research on these remains. The mummy was named - "Maid". This incredible find made the researchers puzzle over the question - how did the girl manage to survive so well?

In total, three embalmed mummies were found near the top of the volcano, which were immersed in suspended animation (deep freeze). But at some point, the procedure failed and the children did not survive. Scientists began studying the boy's body, and with a six-year-old girl, it was decided to wait. The reason for this is the readings of the devices, which show that lightning has hit the girl. In this regard, it was decided to postpone the study of the remains, as this could affect the accuracy of the results.

The entourage around the find confirms the speculations of scientists. Researchers have found jewelry, various artifacts, food and a strange object resembling a feather hat. Usually such things indicate that a ritual was performed in this place.

The Incas deliberately engaged in child sacrifice. Children are recognized as blameless. Moreover, these children turned out to be beautiful. Child sacrifices were rare among the Inca tribe, as it required careful and lengthy preparation.

Further research indicates that these children were “fed” with the finest foods for a year before being sacrificed. Llama meat, candied fruits, various "elite" drinks. Before that, they were ordinary poor people who had never touched such food in their lives. Their diet consisted of simple peasant food. This is a kind of compensation. But was it worth it? To live a year in a golden cage, then to be sacrificed.

The history of our civilization contains many incredible secrets. Where did these children come from? Why were they sacrificed? How were the earliest Incas able to achieve such skill in embalming the human body? These are all amazing things that modern science cannot answer. We can only guess and conduct research, which may one day bring results.

You can see the mummy with your own eyes in the video:

Sacrificed by the ancient Incas, teenagers consumed coca leaves and beer for a long time. This conclusion was reached by archaeologists from several countries, who examined the mummy of a teenage girl found in 1995.

Previously, scientists believed that the victims were given drugs only before death and during the ascent to the mountain peak, where the ritual was performed. Details with reference to an article by researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are cited by Nature News. Day.Az reports about it with reference to Lenta.ru.

Scientists have studied the mummified remains of a girl whose age at the time of death was about 13 years old, and at the moment the girl is about 500 years old. Many circumstances of her death were already well known, so archaeologists carried out additional analyzes: in particular, the hair of the "ice bride" was examined. Using mass spectrometry, it was possible to determine the content in the hair of cocaine and cocaethylene, one of the metabolites of cocaine. These analyzes have shown drug levels to be at the level of modern coca leaf users, which cannot be explained by the single use of coca prior to the ritual.

Earlier, among archaeologists, it was widely believed that coca leaves were given to victims when climbing to the place of their death (mummies of Inca children are found at an altitude of almost six kilometers) and immediately before the murder. It was assumed that the victims also received some other intoxicating substance, which was supposed to facilitate the process of sacrifice: and before that, the children selected for the ritual had not consumed any substances affecting the psyche. Scientists analyzed the hair of not only the "ice bride", but also two other mummies, which only strengthened their hypothesis: they all chewed coca leaves for a year. In addition, archaeologists have identified similar traces of alcohol consumption: the victims drank a lot of beer for about a year. Alcohol and coca were, according to the researchers, part of the ritual preparation for the sacrifice.

The mummy has survived very well due to the low temperature in the highlands. Archaeologists were even able to determine its mass, which, according to scientists, is close to its lifetime, about forty kilograms.

Previous studies, including isotope analysis carried out in 2007, have also shown victims to switch to more valuable foods, including meat. The information accumulated by archaeologists allows us to say that children or adolescents were selected for the role of victims (if the "ice bride" is 13 and she could very well be a real bride, then the other two mummies are children 4 and 5 years old: a boy and a girl), who then a year lived a life different from all other Incas. They were fed the best food, given alcohol and coca leaves, they wore special clothes, and a year later they were sent to the highest mountain peaks. Death, as it was established by forensic doctors who studied the mummies, occurred due to a blow to the head with a blunt object. The Ice Bride died after being hit with something like a modern baseball bat, breaking the bones of her skull and causing a massive hemorrhage that squeezed the girl's brain.

The bodies of all victims were thrown from the mountainside, along with many objects, including gold and silver figurines.

Human sacrifice, including the ritual murder of children, was common in virtually every pre-Columbian civilization in America. The Incas made sacrifices during important events in honor of the gods, of whom there were several dozen in their pantheon. Among the main ones are the sun god Inti and the supreme god Viracocha.

Instead of traditional DNA testing, the scientists looked at proteins in the tissues and found that the apparently healthy girl had a bacterial lung infection resembling tuberculosis. In addition to the teenager, two more mummies were found in the burial - a 7-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl.

All three finds, in contrast to the embalmed Egyptian "colleagues", were deeply frozen. The boy's body was also subjected to study, but scientists have not yet decided to investigate the remains of a 6-year-old girl, because, probably, lightning once hit her, which may affect the accuracy of the research results.