Plomo Mummy

The replica of the Plomo Mummy on display at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago, Chile.
The Enterratorio where the mummy was found, at the secondary summit of El Plomo, 10 m left of the frozen lake. (Altitude 5,400 m)
The Adoratorio near the site where the mummy was found. (Altitude 5,200 m)

The Plomo Mummy (also known as Boy of El Plomo, El Plomo Mummy, or La Momia del Cerro El Plomo in Spanish) is the well preserved remains of an Incan child found on Cerro El Plomo near Santiago, Chile in 1954.[1][2] It was discovered by Guillermo Chacón Carrasco, Jaime Ríos Abarca, and Luis Gerardo Ríos Barrueto.[3] The mummy was brought to the attention of Grete Mostny at the Chilean National Museum of Natural History; she later proved instrumental in the museum's acquisition of the specimen.[4] The Plomo Mummy was the first notable frozen mummy discovery of high-altitude Capacocha human sacrifice by the Incas,[5][6] a practice called qhapaq hucha.

The original mummy was on display until 1982, when it was determined that in order to maintain its preservation it would be better to replace it with a replica. The mummy is curated by the National Museum of Natural History in Santiago, Chile, and the replica of the mummy is currently on public display.

  1. ^ Horne, P. D.; Kawasaki, S. Q. (1984). "The Prince of El Plomo: A paleopathological study". Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. 60 (9): 925–31. PMC 1911799. PMID 6391593.
  2. ^ Tierney, Patrick (1990). The highest altar: unveiling the mystery of human sacrifice. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140139747.[page needed]
  3. ^ Fuenzalida, Humberto (1959). "Historia del hallazgo" (PDF). Boletin del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. XXVII: 4.
  4. ^ Mouat, Francisco (September 2014). "Breve Biografía de la Doctora Grete Mostny (1914 -1991)" (PDF). Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Chile. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  5. ^ Ceruti, Maria Constanza (2015). "Frozen Mummies from Andean Mountaintop Shrines: Bioarchaeology and Ethnohistory of Inca Human Sacrifice". BioMed Research International. 2015: 439428. doi:10.1155/2015/439428. PMC 4543117. PMID 26345378.
  6. ^ Clark, Liesl (November 24, 1998). "Ice Mummies of the Inca". pbs.org. Retrieved 24 July 2012.