Scientists unveil recreation of Inca teenager sacrificed in Peru

A reconstruction of the bust of a teenage girl has revealed a troubling secret unknown for around 500 years.

Scientists in Peru have unveiled the reconstructed head and torso of a teenager – five centuries after her death.

An archaeologist said the Madame Tussauds-like recreation was “magnificent” and “seemed so real”.

But the unsettling truth is that the girl was probably drugged and murdered as a sacrifice to appease the Inca gods.

It was thought the female was 14 or 15 when she died. She has been called “Juanita” or “Inca Ice Maiden”.

The Inca once ruled a vast empire in what is now Latin America but fell to the Spanish when the European nation invaded in the 16th century.

The bust was shown off for the first time in Arequipa in the south of the Latin American nation.

Dr Johan Reinhard with the recreation. He found the mummy in 1995 in Peru. Picture: Reuters.

The recreation was made from a well preserved mummy found in 1995 within an Inca funeral bundle at the Ampato volcano, north of the city, by US archaeologist Dr Johan Reinhard.

When the body was found it was wrapped in a ceremonial tunic and head piece and ceramic items such as bowls surrounded it.

A scan undertaken by a US hospital revealed it was likely the girl was killed by a severe blow to the back of the heard.

Disturbingly, historians believe she may have been drugged and then forced to kneel before being hit over the head with a truncheon like object in a ritual ceremony.

It may have been hoped the killing would persuade the gods to relieve the Inca of natural disasters.

The recreation has been called “Juanita” or “Inca Ice Maiden”. Picture: Reuters.

“Such a sacrifice brought honour on the parents and an afterlife of bliss for the victims,” said Dr Reinhard who added that the teen would have been, “deified and worshipped for generations,” and seen as a go between for man and the gods.

Peruvian and Polish scientists, as well as Swedish expert in facial reconstruction Oscar Milsson, used scans and measurements and well as DNA studies to try and recreate what Juanita may have looked like.

The process took 400 hours and revealed a woman’s face with pronounced cheekbones and dark eyes. She has been dressed in ceremonial clothing.

“I thought I’d never know what her face looked like when she was alive. Now 28 years later, this has become a reality thanks to Oscar Nilsson’s reconstruction,” said Dr Reinhard.

“It’s been done in a magnificent way,” he said, that makes her even more alive”.