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Inca Mummies Research Paper

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Incan Mummies

The bundles opened, it is a girl, head on her knees in a fetal position. The life still present in her eyes. Her young, desiccated, face so calm and peaceful. Never knowing of the future that was to come. She lived her life and to honor that the Incas mummified her body, sending her spirits to live among the gods. The Inca or Inka Empire is located in modern day Peru their empire lasted from 1438–1533. The Incas had the largest empire in Pre-Colombian America. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century; the Spanish ending their empire conquered them. They were famous for their sacrifices and mummification. Incan culture believed that when someone died their spirits would live on …show more content…

The process occurred either naturally, or intentionally. Incan mummification involved specific purposes. The Incans thought that after someone passed away their spirits resurrected and lived life with the gods. The Incans also thought that mummification and burial among the living was supposed to keep the deceased as part of the living. During process of mummification the treatment of the dead’s body depended on their social status. Ceremonial mummification was very different from the sacrificial mummification, because ceremonial mummies were usually kings and nobles. The king’s body was usually prepared very carefully and extravagantly. Their funerals were celebrated with great pomp and splendor; their bodies were embalmed and magnificently dressed, kept on the throne and attended on by staff. Kings were accompanied in their graves with exquisite decorations, multi colored woven burial coats and pottery and animal sacrifices. To celebrate their life the king or noble’s body was taken to each temple and shrine in every village to be blessed. On the to the villages miles and miles of the roads were covered in …show more content…

The Incas provided us with general information about their culture and mummification, but with the use of technology and science anthropologist and archeologist were able to scratch closer to the surface of the Incas by excavating mummies. After the excavation anthropologist performed an autopsy detailing their state when they died and how they died. With the autopsy the researchers were able to tell the ages of the mummies. A sample of the contents of their stomach were taken helping them find out how long it takes their bodies to freeze. They copied the mitochondrial DNA using the PCR or polymerase chain reaction. The DNA of the mummies was of such high quality because of the fact that the mummies were very well preserved because of the cold weather. The examination of the mummies body’s helped us find out an amazing fact about one of the mummies, Juanita. It led to the discovery that “She had a lung infection before she died which could have played a factor in her death”(Halls 10). Scientist used a technique called shotgun proteomics. They placed the samples into a device called a mass spectrometer, which broke all of the samples proteins into their constituent parts, amino-acid chains. Sophisticated software compared these parts using existing proteins of the human genome to determine the actual proteins in the samples. They found that the Maiden's profile of

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