The secret of the Inca’s and 500-year old mummies

Her body is so perfectly preserved that it is hard to believe this girl died more than 500 years ago.
But what is even more remarkable is that scientists today have been able to learn the secrets of her death – by analysing her hair. The 13-year-old Incan girl was heavily dosed with alcohol and coca leaves, which form the basis of cocaine, before being left to die of exposure high in the Andes as a sacrifice.
Known as the Ice Maiden, she is one of three children found in stone tombs on a mountain in Argentina. The girl, the eldest of the three, was found cross-legged, with her head slumped forward and her hands resting in her lap.
She wore a feather headdress over her tightly braided hair and there were coca leaves between her teeth and balled up behind her cheek. The children were discovered in 1999.
They are believed to have been sacrificed in a ceremony called capacocha, a ritual thought to have been used to instil fear and help control members of the rapidly expanding Inca empire. Analysis of the children’s hair, which still contains a chemical fingerprint of their diet, shows that all three were plied with drugs and alcohol to subdue them in the months before they died.
Amounts were particularly high in the 13-year-old girl, perhaps because she showed more resistance.
The chemical analysis was carried out by researchers at the University of Bradford, and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers said the coca leaves, which release a mild stimulant when chewed and sucked, would have helped her cope with the demands of altitude.