Three child mummies were discovered on the summit of the Llullaillaco volcano located on the Argentina-Chile border. The summit is 22,100 feet (6,739 meters) above sea level, where temperatures were chilled enough to preserve the bodies, turning them into mummies, after the kids were sacrificed some 500 years ago.
The Maiden mummy of a 15-year-old girl who was sacrificed some 500 years ago suggests she likely suffered from a lung infection at the time of her death, scientists reported July 25, 2012.
The mummy of a 6-year-old girl was also found on the summit of the Argentinian volcano Llullaillaco, though she showed signs of having been struck by lightning so wasn't sampled.
The three Llullaillaco mummies, including that of the 7-year-old boy (shown here), are preserved at Museum of High Mountain Archaeology (MAAM) in Salta, Argentina.
Shown here, the CT scan of the brain of the 6-year-old female mummy who was likely struck by lightning. The scan, released in December 2003, shows her orbits with presence of eyes, optic nerves (arrows), and orbital muscles.
A brain scan of the 15-year-old female Maiden mummy shows differentiation between the white and gray matter in the brain's cerebral hemispheres, with the arrows pointing out air surrounding the brain.
The CT scan of the mummy of the 5-year-old boy showed his preserved brain was in excellent condition even though he had been sacrificed some 500 years ago.