Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Mummy with triangular head and huge eyes discovered in Peru

Ok, this video took me a while to find. I've seen a few reports of this mummy since 2011 but I finally came across a video that explains it a bit better. If you have never seen the images or heard about this mummy, it's definitely worth a look:



Peruvian researchers are puzzled on Friday over an oddly formed mummy found recently in the Cuzco region, the heart of Incan civilization. The mummy now sits in the Ritos Andinos Museum in Andahuaylillas, some 685 miles southeast of Lima. Here, anthropologist Renata Davila explained some of the strange features of the mummy. [Renato Davila, Director, Ritos Andinos Museum]: "It's 20 inches tall, which doesn't coincide with the stereotypes of humans. It's head is triangular and the eye cavities are too big.” Davila also pointed to a strange flange on the jaw and the development of teeth that don't match the mummy's apparent age. [Renato Davila, Director, Ritos Andinos Museum]: "The lower front part of the jaw has a kind of fin that doesn't exist in any ethnicity in the world. The opening at the top of the head also calls for attention, and it has wisdom teeth and molars that also don't coincide with any human being.”

Back in Lima, anthropologist Pablo Bayabar attempted to put together the pieces of the malformed mummy. [Pablo Bayabar, Anthropologist]: "Children's heads are proportionally bigger than their bodies. Here we have two points. First, the fontanelle is open, which usually closes at 31 months. And it has molars that usually appears between approximately 13 and 19 months. So we are looking at a child under two years old with an enormous head.” He said it could have been a human sacrifice to placate gods during times when the Incans felt threatened. [Pablo Bayabar, Anthropologist]: "This is possibly a human sacrifice, common during Pre-Incan and Incan times. Historians have written for example that during the times of the famous 'capacocha'—situations where the Incans died or could have died—they sacrificed children in the areas close to large mountains to honor the mountains.” Researchers will continue to study the strange mummy. (source here )

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