Wednesday, November 02, 2005

THE MYSTERY OF THE INKA BOY


Five hundred years ago, an inka boy was sacrified in the summit of El Plomo Mountain (5.480 m.), in Central Andes. He was just eight years old. He became into an offer to the gods of the mountain. He was probably an inka prince, or a son of some aristrocratic member of inka society. He was taken in a long walking journey by inka priests. They combed his hair into "trencitas". He wore guanaco leather clothes and a bag with some sacred idols.

Fifty four years ago, some treasure-hunters found his body, almost untouched, due to cold temperatures. It had been kept liofilized for centuries. They found some yerba de coca into his teeth.

Some scientificians say that he may be alive when he was founded, in some kind of "suspended animation state". Probably, we will never know the truth.
Some researchers of Chilean University, scanned the body and found an interesting paleo-infection in the body. Nowadays, our inka boy rests on a dark, cold specially taylor-made crypt in the basement of Natural History National Museum.



What should we do with this heritage? Should we keep as a secret? Should we transform it into a touristic attraction? Should we publish some new book about him?

3 comments:

Pablo Villoch said...

Uauh!

it sounds quite interesting!

where may I read more about that issue?

Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

http://www.mnhn.cl/apuntes/bibliogr.htm

Ale said...

Que top¡¡¡ has a nice and sweet face...