Sareta
"Sarita", the mummified body of a seven-year-old girl was found atop
the 18,070-foot Andean peak Sara Sara in southern Peru. She was
sacrificed more than 500 years ago as an offering to the Inca Sun god.
Sarita was discovered in September 1996 by Dr. Johan Reinhard,
(Mountain Institute in West Virginia), and José Antonio Chavez,
(Catholic University in Arequipa, Peru), atop a platform on the
mountain's east face. The sex of the mummy was identified by the
presence of a shawl pin worn only by women. Found in a fetal position,
Sarita had been placed on the platform along with three gold and silver
statuettes and a small bundle of coca leaves, traditional offerings to
the mountain gods. She was a 'capaccocha' or human sacrifice. Human
sacrifices, particularly those of children, were made in times of
famine, epidemic, and military defeat, or on the summer and winter
solstices, the most sacred events of the Inca ceremonial calendar.
Because Sarita had been left on the sun-drenched east face of the
mountain, her body had decomposed more than another mummy named Juanita
also found in the Peruvian Andes.