Eruption Reveals Inca Mummies Volcano In Peruvian Andes Uncovers 3 Who Were Sacrificed

A volcanic eruption in the Peruvian Andes has revealed the mummies of three people sacrificed by the Incas 500 years ago, scientists said Tuesday.

The find, the first of its kind, has excited scientists who say it will give them a unique look at the Inca Indian tribes that ruled a large part of South America before the Spanish conquest.

Two of the bodies were partially frozen and may contain 500-year-old living organisms, scientists said.

“There have never been Inca mummies found frozen before,” said Johan Reinhard, an American archaeologist who was a leader of the expedition. “We’re going to make a major leap in understanding the Incas.”

The bodies of two young women and a man were discovered by a joint Peruvian-American archaeology team in September and early October about 20,700 feet up Mount Ampato in southern Peru.

The three were killed by Incan priests as human sacrifices to appease the gods of Mount Ampato, which was considered sacred, said Reinhard, a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

“The sacrificial humans were probably alive when they went up the mountain,” he said.

In Washington, George Stuart of the National Geographic Society said the mummies would give researchers a unique look at Incan civilization.

“The objects and sites they left behind will provide a large amount of new information on their little-understood sacrificial ritual,” Stuart said.

The Incas ruled a 2,000-mile stretch of western South America from Ecuador to northern Chile and Argentina from their imperial city of Cuzco. They were at the height of their empire when the Spanish conquistadors arrived early in the 16th century.

Besides the mummies, the two expeditions - funded by the National Geographic Society, the Mountain Institute of West Virginia and individual patrons - found well-preserved Inca artifacts.

The mummies, wrapped in textile bundles, were found near at least a dozen statues of gold, silver, bronze and shell. Some of the statues were wearing perfectly preserved clothing and feather headdresses - a rare find, Reinhard said.