Salta and the sacred inca sanctuary

The Museum of archaeology of high mountain, which dazzles with the famous mummies of the "Children of Llullaillaco", is located in the city of Salta, capital of the province of Salta, Argentina, Northwest mummified naturally, by work of the low temperatures and the dryness of the atmosphere.

They are simple objects that are exposed in a showcase, are human beings whose display can generate different types of feelings and reactions. For this reason, there is a sign in the Hall of the High mountain Archeology Museum (MAAM), which says "visitors can choose whether or not view bodies, with respect and silence".
Mummies in question are those of Ray, the maiden girl and El Niño, which are, without doubt, one of the most important discoveries in recent years. The "Llullaillaco children" were found in 1999, at the top of the legendary Volcano Llullaillaco, 6,700 m. of height, with 146 objects composing its grave goods, an extraordinary world in miniature which accompanied them in their "journey into the past", more than 500 years ago.

The intense cold of the area made the conservation of the mummies almost perfect, and today are the central attraction of the MAAM, the most modern Archaeological Museum in the country. Their graves are the highest that man has ever built on the planet. In times of catastrophe, the incas chose the highest peaks of the Andes to appease the wrath of the gods by the chapacocha or sacrifice of ninos-emisarios.
The discovery of these mummies, the best preserved in the whole world, was a challenge for the team of 14 professionals, six Argentines, six Peruvians and two Americans, which counted with the collaboration of the Argentine army. Adventure relates in a very good audiovisual exhibited in the Museum, and that later turns out an indispensable introduction to that seen.

The permanent exhibition of the MAAM allows you to delve into the history of the incas and understand the importance of nature to the pre-Columbian cultures and the special value had the mountains for them, consideradolas gods who protected the communities. On mountaintops, the incas built buildings for their religious rituals.
The three bodies correspond to a girl of about 15 years, a boy aged 7 to 12, and a girl about 6 years, which after death was struck by lightning. Known by their DNA that they were not brothers, but it is believed that the mayor was sacrificed alongside the two others as caregiver. It is known as the maid.

Cranial CT does not display signs of sharp or blunt instruments. What if we found were high levels of coca and chicha (an alcoholic drink) in tissues and hair of the three individuals. On the basis of those residues, the MAAM researchers hypothesize that the priests provided children a kind of narcotic. They slept and hypothermia did the rest. For the incas, the children did not die, but met with their ancestors.
These children were delivered in one of the rituals most important gods of the inca calendar, the Capacocha, which can be translated as "real obligation". These children through 1,600 km. from Cusco, dresses in her best clothes. To accompany a trousseau found Sandals of leather, wool, vases, statuettes of antroformas with gold and silver bodies and feather headdresses.

La Doncella, clearly, sitting with the cross pernas and a Brown dress. It was found with a headdress of wool and feathers blacas displayed next to a silver figurine. His hair is combed with small braids and her face, pimntado with red pigment.
"El Nino" is attached and sitting with the face on his knees, and the sitting "lightning girl" , with the face in high, and part of the body burned by lightning who reached it after of buried. The mummies are in capsules crioconservadoras at 20 degrees below zero. For their preservation, are shown a one at a time and rotate every four months.


Translated for educational purposes
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