Nevado Cajón, Pre-Columbian and Modern Ascents. The “Momia de Los Quilmes” was possibly an Inca mummy found between 1920 and 1924 in some unknown place near Cafayate, in Salta Province, northern Argentina. The mummy itself is presumably lost but Argentinian mountaineers believed that it had been extracted from an Inca burial in some high Andean peak near Cafayate. Antonio Beorchia, head of the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológicas de Alta Montaña, San Juan, organized an expedition to locate the burial ground of the now legendary mummy. Other expedition members were J. Garcés, G. and J.P. Oro, A. Rugna and F. Salgado. From local hillmen Beorchia learned that the mummy had been found on the summit of Nevado Cajón and that at least two previous different parties had ascended that peak to sack its Indian remains. The Beorchia expedition then ascended the mountain (5468 meters, 17,940 feet). A bone, possibly human, was found on the summit itself and some 150 feet below, walls and bundles of firewood. It is assumed by the Argentinians that the mummy had been indeed a sacrificial offering of Inca origin.

Evelio Echevarría