500-Year-Old Mummy Returned To Bolivia

Danielle Kurin is a former assistant professor and tenured associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her research is focused on the Andes, and particularly understanding social change and transformations based upon skeletal evidence and bioarchaeological analysis. She has conducted intensive research studies in Peru and Bolivia, examining both historic and prehistoric mummies in both countries..

Bolivia recently welcomed back home significant prehistoric human remains.

In August 2019, the Michigan State University Museum returned a 500-year-old mummy to Bolivia. According to a report, the mummy, which had been donated to the museum, spent about 129 years abroad until the repatriation. Known as “Nusta,” a Quechua word meaning “princess,” experts believe the mummy originated from the Andean highlands around the last years of the Inca civilization, around the second half of the 15th century. Nusta is the only mummy recovered from that period.

According to experts, Nusta died at about 8 years old. She was buried in a dress made from llama or alpaca threads; these animals were domesticated in the Andes over 4,000 years ago. While many mysteries about the mummy remain unsolved, researchers believe DNA studies will be able to determine whether the girl was truly from a royal origin. Nusta was received at the National Archaeology Museum in downtown La Paz, where she was preserved in a refrigerated chamber.