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April 9-13, 2001
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Telling the Secrets of Mountains
| A Chilling Discovery |
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In 1995, at the summit of the Ampato mountain in the Andes, Dr. Johan Reinhard and Miguel Zárate, his Peruvian climbing partner, made an astonishing discovery. At a height of 20,700 feet (6,309 meters), they found the mummified body of a 12- to 14-year-old Inca girl.
The "Ice Maiden" was killed over 500 years ago as a sacrifice to the Inca mountain gods. She had been lying in her icy grave for half a millennium. A nearby volcano, Mt. Sabancaya, had erupted and spread hot ash over the ice caps of Ampato, causing them to melt.
Their immediate challenge was to retrieve the frozen mummy from the mountaintop and bring her to safety before she began to melt. Left on the mountain, she was open to many threats. She could have been stolen by treasure hunters, damaged by falling rocks and volcanic ash, or buried under a fresh snowfall. First they wrapped the mummy in a sleeping bag to preserve her temperature. With the Ice Maiden strapped to his backpack, Reinhard began his precarious mountain descent. The pair then walked for 13 hours to reach the town of Cabanaconde, and then took an overnight bus to the Catholic University in Arequipa, Peru. There, scientific analysis of the body could begin. Reinhard and his colleagues were able to draw some fascinating conclusions:
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It was only when Reinhard and his colleague lifted the mummy that they discovered the importance of their discovery—she weighed at least 80 pounds (36 kg). A dried-up mummy would have weighed considerably less. They realized that the ice must have preserved the girl's flesh and internal organs.
Hear Reinhard describe his first encounter with the Ice Maiden. (Requires QuickTime.
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| High Ambitions |
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His early work was done in the field of underwater archaeology. By 21, he was involved in uncovering ancient Roman artifacts from the Mediterranean Sea. But the young Reinhard had higher ambitions. His interest in mountain cultures eventually led him to South America where he has spent 15 years working in the Andean countries of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina, investigating the world's highest archaeological sites. Working on mountain tops poses a unique set of prob l ems, Reinhard notes. "You already have difficulties adapting the body and the mind because you have to work at high altitudes. At the same time you need a team of people up there. And all of them, obviously, should be trained in the part of mountaineering and in the part of archaeology. " The thinner air on mountain peaks creates difficult breathing conditions. High winds and storms also make life difficult for the archaeologists. Reinhard's team has had to overcome winds that reached 70 mph (113 km/ph), driving snow, and dramatic storms on their ventures.
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From an early age, Reinhard was fascinated by distant lands and different cultures. He resolved to pursue his dreams by studying anthropology, the science of civilizations past and present.
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Since the discovery of the Ice Maiden, Reinhard has made several other discoveries. At Argentina's Mt. Llullaillaco (Yule-yai-yaco)—the world's highest archaeological site at 22,000 feet (6,706 meters)—he found three mummified bodies. They were two girls and a boy, buried under about 5 feet (1.5 meters) of rock and earth. "There is nothing else than can possibly be equal to a frozen mummy," Reinhard says. "It literally is that window into the past because you really can examine everything from the food they ate to the kinds of trees that were growing at the time." Although the bodies had been buried for 500 years, computer topography (CT) scans revealed that all their internal organs were intact, as if they had died only recently. "They appear the best preserved of any mummy I've seen," says Reinhard, "The arms looked perfect, even down to visible hairs." According to Reinhard, even the clothes on the mummies were intact. "The undamaged female has a beautiful, yellow geometrically designed cover laid over her outer mantle. She also wears a feathered headdress that retains its original white color." It's likely that there are many Inca burial sites in the Andean peaks. These sites are important because the artifacts and materials found at them are usually well preserved. Cultural information on the Inca is hard to come by, as very few Inca structures have survived at ground level. There are no written records of Inca culture, as the Inca had no written language. In addition to the mummies, the burial sites yield many ancient artifacts that were offered to the mountain gods along with the sacrifice victims. Gold and silver statuettes, ornate Inca pottery, foodstuffs, and textiles all provide clues to the Incan religious beliefs and cultural practices.
High-altitude archaeology is skilled and hazardous work. And Reinhard is racing against treasure hunters, who have already destroyed many sacred sites as they search for valuable artifacts. These tomb-robbers have no respect for preserving any mummies they might find on the mountain. For this reason, Reinhard defends his work against criticisms that the graves should be left untouched. "Whatever we do, we should err on the side of conservation and preservation," he writes on his Web site. "It's necessary to understand that it's impossible to guard these sites and only a matter of time before they will be looted. The idea of not touching sites or re-interring the mummies is to subject them to certain destruction. Once an artifact is destroyed, it is gone forever. That was not what the Incas wanted or Peruvians want." |
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