In 1995, during an ascent of Mt. Ampato, Johan Reinhard, an American archaeologist and his Peruvian climbing partner Zarate found inside the summit crater a bundle that had fallen down from an Inca site when the ridge had collapsed due to the melting caused by volcanic ash that has fallen from the nearby erupting volcano of Sabancaya. To their astonishment, the bundle turned out to contain a remarkably well-preserved mummy of a young girl. In addition, they found—strewn about the mountain slope down which the mummy had fallen—many items that had been left as offerings to the Inca gods, such as statues and food items. A couple of days later, the mummy and the objects were taken to Arequipa; the remains of the mummy were initially kept in a special refrigerator. The mummy, named "Juanita" caused a sensation in the scientific world due to the well-preserved state in which it was found. Near the windy barren summit, in this high, cold mountain chain, they spotted brightly colored feathers sticking out of the ground. The feathers were out of place. They were out of time. Those feathers belonged to the headdress of a beautifully designed and fully intact Inca ceremonial statuette. There were several, all with colorful cloth wrappings in perfect condition. They knew that other items from this summit site were likely to have been unearthed and rolled downhill, into the crater. Tossing rocks wrapped in bright plastic sheets down two gullies, they climbed into the crater two hundred feet downhill. Near one of the rocks lay a large bundle. Perhaps it was a climber’s pack. When they approached they realized the bundle was a small, tightly wrapped body, held to the mountain only by ice. Freeing it from the ice, they met history face-to-face; a 12 to 14 years old girl, desiccated and hollow eyed. A young sacrifice victim "killed by Inca priests to appease the gods, especially the gods of the mountain," says Reinhard. She lay wrapped in textiles in the fetal position surrounded by scattered pottery shards, llama bones, corn kernels, cloth pieces and a small spondylus shell figurine.
In October 1995, Reinhard returned to Mount Ampato, this time with the support of the National Geographic Society and an 18- person expedition. The expedition discovered ritual platforms, the body of a girl probably eight to ten years old, and the skeleton of a third person less well preserved. His expeditions in the Andes during 1996-1999 led to the discovery of fourteen more Inca human sacrifices on five mountains above 5,500 m. In 1999 he directed the excavations of three perfectly preserved mummies at 6,739 m (22,109 feet) on Llullaillaco, the world’s highest archaeological site. In 1995 and 1999 Time selected Dr. Reinhard’s finds as among “the world’s ten most important scientific discoveries” of those years.