Archive Note
The body was found in 1889 and classified by Leopoldo Batres that year as the "Momia Tolteca," with Batres erroneously identifying it as male. Modern bioarchaeological and radiocarbon work around 2012, by researchers from INAH and the Musee du quai Branly, established that she is female, lived around 250 CE, and bears zoomorphic and geometric tattoos on her forearms and abdomen, proof that "painted" bodies in Spanish accounts could mean real pigment under the surface. The museum nickname "Toltec" is a misnomer, since the Toltec came centuries later; the better attribution is the Nuine culture of the Mixteca Baja.