Children of the Cold

It always amazes me whenever I go to my Humanities class and come back home with something new that I learned or something that's weird.

So last night one of our topic for class was the Inca's and the Maya's. My professor did not really elaborate a whole lot of the topic but she mentions some interesting stuff. One of them is the so called "Children of the cold". Why are they called that way? Because they were children that was sacrificed by leaving them in the cold. The bodies were extra ordinary and you will be amazed on how the body was preserved for a long time. According to NY Times

"...their frozen bodies were among the best preserved mummies ever found, with internal organs intact, blood still present in the heart and lungs, and skin and facial features mostly unscathed..."


The first one is a girl and she is the eldest of the three mummified Inca children that was discovered in 1999 in the Andes. You can see here that the scientist were examining the girl.


The girl was about 15 years old at the time of her death. You can even see the colors on her face.

The girl displayed in an acrylic container kept at 0 degrees Fahrenheit in order to preserved it.

The next one is "The Boy of Llullaillac." From his elaborate clothing, scientists inferred that the 7-year-old was born to Incan nobility.


With the next one, she was called "The Girl of Lightning." Her burial site was apparently struck by lightning that's why she looks like she was burned. She was 6 years old at the time of her death.


There are some other artifacts that was found together with the children that would tell you the story about where they came from.

To read more on related articles.

Now during the discussion in class my professor was asking if it's right to have them displayed or that they should have just been given the right burial. I don't really know what to think of it, I guess it's the right thing to give them the proper burial but then again, you wanted to preserve some history of it and let other people see the amazing thing about it.

So if it's you, what do you think? Give the children the proper burial or display them in the museum for other people to see it? Share your opinion by leaving a comment, we'd like to know.

Source: NY Times

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