Drugged with beer and cocaine and left to freeze to death, 500-year-old mummies of sacrificed Inca children reveal their secrets



Archaeologists discover traces of coca leaves and beer in Incan mummies



The mummies of the three children were discovered in 1999 in Argentina



They are the best naturally preserved group of mummies found so far



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.

Scroll down for video

The children included a 13-year-old known as the 'Llullaillaco Maiden' whose remains were struck by lightning and charred. She was well fed and chosen for her beauty and possibly nobility

Axial radiograph of the interior of the mouth, showing the coca (green) held between the teeth. Coca and alcohol were substances that induced altered states interpreted as sacred and which could suggest to victims and those associated with them the proximity of the divine beings 3D visualisations of the Maiden's cranium (yellow), teeth (orange), tongue (red) and the coca (green). The Maiden had pieces of coca leaves on her mouth

CAPACOCHA: THE RITUAL OF DEATH Capacocha was a ritual that took place upon the death of an Inca king.

The local lords were required to select unblemished children representing the ideal of human perfection.



Children were married and presented with sets of miniature human and llama figurines in gold, silver, copper and shell.

The male figures have elongated earlobes and a braided headband and the female figurines wore their hair in plaited.

The children were then returned to their original communities, where they were honoured before being sacrificed to the mountain gods on the Llullaillaco Volcano (pictured).



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.

Ritual killings were common within the Incan culture. In 1999 three Children of Llullaillaco, who found deep frozen were found with an extraordinary collection of elaborate gold, silver and shell statues, textiles and pots containing food The children included a 13-year-old known as the 'Llullaillaco Maiden'

Child sacrifice was called capacocha. The process of capacocha could begin years before the selected person was killed. A mummified body of a child who was killed during one such sacrifice is pictured here

The older girl's face - which showed red ochre markings - was creased from the place it rested on her shawl

The chicha, an alcoholic drink made from fermented maize, would have helped her deal with the cold.



But it could also have hastened her death by stopping her from shivering.

There is no evidence that the girl, known as the Llullaillaco Maiden after the mountain in northwest Argentina, was brutally killed.