DNA REVEALS THE IDENTITY OF THE INCA'S CHILD MUMMIES
A team of forensic geneticists recently sequenced DNA from a frozen mummified boy (pictured)
He
was found frozen and half-covered in soil on the rocky slopes of the
highest mountain in the Americas but now the identity of the Inca child
mummy has been partially revealed.
A
team of forensic geneticists and archaeologists has sequenced some of
the youngster's DNA using a tiny fragment of lung taken from his
mummified body.
He
is said to have belonged to a family that originated far to the north
in the Peruvian Andes and was also a member of a rare genetic sub-group
of Palaeo-Indians not been previously identified.
The
perfectly preserved seven-year-old boy was sacrificed by Inca priests
500 years ago to honour their gods in a ritual known as capacocha.
The
mitochondrial DNA examined by the scientists is passed down only
through the maternal line of a family and so it suggests the child, his
mother, or her ancestors, migrated more than 1,000 miles south through
the Andes to what is now Argentina.
They found the mummy also belonged to a rare genetic sub-group of Palaeo-Indians who had not been previously identified.
It
is thought this group first arose around 14,300 years ago in Peru and
few people carrying these mitochondrial genes remain living today.
Those that do, live in Peru and Bolivia.
However,
the researchers also found a similar genetic profile, or halotype, in
the remains of an individual from the ancient Wari Empire, which existed
in Peru around 1100AD before the Inca.
Dr
Alberto Gómez-Carballa, a forensic geneticist who was the lead author
of the work at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, told
MailOnline the mummified child could have been part of a ritual
sacrifice pilgrimage.
Comments
Post a Comment