Why was the Ice Maiden named Juanita?
The Peruvian team members chose this because they wanted a name that was easy to remember and common in the villages (even among speakers of other langauges). It was not known where the ice maiden originally came from, and if from the Colca Canyon (near Ampato) then the two languages spoken there weren t known. And she could have easily been an Aymara or Quechua speaker. In the end the team selected a simple name common even in areas where other languages are spoken. But it should be emphasized that the name was chosen informally to use among the team members (tired of just saying “the mummy”) and it became used by the public only after the press published it.
