Recent Activities

Last Updated April 1999

TMI Senior Fellow Reveals Major Archaeological Find- April 6, 1999
See more about the find
A major archaeological discovery has been made in the Andes by one of The Mountain Institute's Senior Fellows. Dr. Johan Reinhard, project leader and Senior Fellow of The Mountain Institute, announced the team's discovery earlier today in Salta, Argentina of the mummies of Llullaillaco (pronounced "Yule-yai-yaco"). Reinhard's team has had to overcome continuing 70mph winds and dramatic storms at the dig, looters looking for the additional riches buried with the mummies, and the near death of a team member who suffered an attack of pulmonary edema due to extended work at the extremely high altitude, 22,000 feet. This is the world's highest archaeological site. Dr. Reinhard claims "the find has been worth it all because the mummies appear to be perfectly preserved, as if they died just recently and were frozen."

In addition to the on-line events coming soon, Dr. Reinhard is als involved in the following events:

Education in Schools: This fall nearly a quarter of a million teachers in North America will be receiving National Geographic’s (NG) Geography Awareness Week (GAW) packets. The focus this year is on exploration, and the packet contains information and photos which pertain to the Inca Ice Maiden and Dr. Reinhard’s mountain research. (Thirty thousand of the packets are in Spanish.) (The GAW packets can be obtained by calling the Geography Education Division of the National Geographic Society.)

Sixteen thousand posters are being sent by MOTT’S for display in school dining halls that focus on Dr. Reinhard’s work in Peru. (The MOTT’S posters can be obtained by calling 203-968-7757.)

Articles & Notices: A NG Magazine article on discoveries made by Dr. Reinhard in Peru last summer is tentatively planned to appear in the May 1998 issue. Dr. Reinhard’s article about the Ice Maiden’s discovery is to appear in a special issue on the Andes in GEO (German) in the fall of 1997. His January 1997 National Geographic article updating information about the Inca ice maiden has appeared in the September 1997 issue of the Spanish GEO. (His article about the Inca Ice Maiden that appeared in the June 1996 issue of National Geographic has been published in the Spanish GEO November 1996 issue).

Books: Dr. Reinhard’s children’s book (Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden), published by the National Geographic Society is due out in the spring of 1998. His research is being featured in National Geographic’s book Talking With Adventurers due out in the fall of 1998. The Encyclopedia Britannica (Science & The Future Yearbook), the Children’s Britannica Yearbook (for 9-13 year olds) and the children’s educational book Mummies are to appear with articles on the Ice Maiden. Other publications due out soon with information on the Ice Maiden include science books (e.g. Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures) and popular books (e.g. Tombs, Graves & Mummies: 50 Discoveries in World Archaeology). Dr. Reinhard hopes to have a popular book out on the Inca ice maiden and other discoveries in 1999. A book in German about his Andean work Das Letzte Geheimnis der Inka appeared in 1986, and is to be reprinted with an update including the ice maiden.

Websites: The section of the NG website dealing with the Ice Maiden was updated in September 1997 to include a "virtual autopsy" and will add the reconstruction of a tomb and some archeological finds. National Geographic will carry exclusive "live" Internet coverage of one of Dr. Reinhard’s expeditions for two weeks this fall (October-November). The Institute for Genomic Research’s website (www.tigr.org) has just added new information about the Ice Maiden’s DNA.

Films: A one-hour TV program (Discovery TV) about cultural aspects of the Andes (due out January 12, 1998 as part of a three one hour series on the Andes) will have about 20 minutes devoted to Dr. Reinhard’s high altitude archaeology work of August 1996 on Pichu Pichu. The BBC/NOVA one hour program (Frozen in Heaven) on his expedition to Sara Sara has been aired in England and is scheduled to air on PBS in the USA in the fall of 1998. The New Explorers one hour PBS TV program (The Search for Shangri-La) on his trip in east Nepal in the fall of will appear in several countries during the coming year.

Exhibitions: The Royal Ontario Museum is hoping to do a "virtual archaeology exhibition" focusing on the Ice Maiden and Inca culture (using a hologram of the Ice Maiden, an interactive screen, virtual artifacts manipulated via computer, a 180° screen for a virtual tour of Machu Pichu, etc.) There is an ongoing exhibition in Arequipa focusing on discoveries made during his Andean expeditions, and a beautiful colonial building is due to open the end of 1997.

Lectures: During 1998 Dr. Reinhard expects to lecture in Washington, D.C. at the National Geographic Society and in Chicago, Denver, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Toronto. He is scheduled to be a lecturer on the Empires of the Sun archaeology tour in Peru July 27-Aug. 1, 1998 and then lead an Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu Aug. 2-9 (organized through Wilderness Travel tel. 800-368-2794). .