Silicon Sculpture Depicts Peru’s So-Called Inca Ice Maiden

AREQUIPA, PERU—BBC News reports that facial reconstruction specialist Oscar Nilsson and a team of researchers from Peru and Poland employed body scans, skull measurements, DNA studies, and ethnological characteristics to recreate the face of the 500-year-old mummy known as the “Inca Ice Maiden” out of silicon. The young woman’s frozen remains were discovered at an altitude of 21,000 feet in 1995 by archaeologist Johan Reinhard and Peruvian mountaineer Miguel Zárate. Thought to have been drugged and then killed with a blow to the back of the head, the teen was found wearing a ceremonial tunic and headpiece. Ceramic bowls and figurines were also recovered near her remains. The bust is now on display at the Andean Sanctuaries Museum of the Catholic University of Santa Maria. To read about the uncertain whereabouts of an Inca king’s mummy, go to “In Search of History’s Greatest Rulers: Atahualpa, Last Inca Emperor.”