In the mountains of Peru and Chile, explorer and anthropologist John Reinhard has discovered numerous mummies of children, sacrificed and buried on mountaintops in the 15th Century, intended as messengers of the gods of the Inca Empire. Whatever message they may have been dispatched with, they have brought one of discord to the world of the living.
Local Claims
Peru is notorious as a hotbed of the illegal antiquities market: some locals have amassed small fortunes by excavating burial grounds and selling the ancient textiles, ceramics and gold. In many instances, the people living in and around the sites live in conditions lacking sanitation or sufficient medical care. For this reason they often deeply resent archaeologists, as in Atwood: “The archaeologists come here and dig up all the gold and silver and leave us with nothing…and they call us the looters.” (Atwood 36)
The most famous of the mummies is named ‘Juanita’ or ‘the Inca Ice Maiden’ and was discovered on Nevado Ampato. She was thus claimed as an ‘ancestor’ by the local Andeans. Since Juanita is only 500 years old, mitochondrial DNA testing can allow us to narrow down which group she belongs to, although an mDNA database for South America is still incomplete. Bizarrely, the closest relations they could establish for her were Ngobe Indians of Panama and the Andeans suspected a plot by government and academia to steal her and her tourist profitability from them.
Government Claims
Although she had Andean pollen on her clothes and the Inca Empire did not extend that far, the Panamanians objected to Juanita’s expedition tour excluding ‘her homeland.’
The Peruvian government, meanwhile, wanted control of the mummy for its tourist dollars, but the Peruvian government was notorious for ineptitude at caring for its antiquities, and a mummy such as this needed immediate attention to prevent degradation.
Academic Claims
Reinhard called on experts to assist him with the study and preservation of Juanita. He also needed funding, and for this he turned to the American National Geographic Society to build and test a preservation and display case for Juanita; in exchange for their funding, the Society, as is normal for it, claimed exclusive publishing rights on the subject of Juanita.
In addition, Reinhard enlisted Dr. Guillen of Peru, and Drs. Konrad Spindler and Horst Seidler, who had made their names in Austria studying the famous Alps Iceman. Guillen, however, crusaded keenly for the mummy to be kept at her facility, leading to accusations of bias, and the fundraising exhibition to the United States was resented by the experts as an attempt of the Americans to monopolize the project.
Final Thoughts
Artifacts of times past are not static things: they can have implications and ramifications in the modern era. Archaeological ethics is a difficult field, especially in post-colonial nations like Peru, when Western academia grates against the hard feelings already strong in indigenous peoples. This is all the more powerful when human remains are involved, as the tug-of-war over Juanita demonstrates. The priorities of government and cultural propriety, scientific interest and academic egos can turn these dusty relics into the eyes of storms, a sobering reminder to those who dismiss ancient remains as dead.
SourcesReinhard, Johan. The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods and Sacred Sites in the Andes. National Geographic Society Press, 2004
Pringle, Heather. The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead. Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2001
Atwood, Roger. Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers and the Looting of the Ancient World. St. Martin's Press, 2004.
