For over a century, a mysterious mummified head housed in Switzerland’s Cantonal Museum of Archaeology and History has carried the wrong identity. What museum curators believed to be the remains of an ancient Inca ruler has now been definitively identified as belonging to the Aymara people of Bolivia’s highlands. This remarkable case of mistaken identity, detailed in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, demonstrates how modern scientific techniques can rewrite historical narratives and restore dignity to indigenous remains.
The individual, catalogued as specimen Y-001, underwent extensive non-invasive analysis using CT scanning and historical research. Results revealed fascinating details about this ancient person’s life and the colonial-era circumstances that brought his remains to Europe. The man died at least 350 years ago and bore the distinctive marks of Aymara cultural practices, including deliberate cranial modification performed during infancy and evidence of an attempted trepanation procedure.