US mummy was Peruvian girl from 1500s

Medical scans of mummified remains in a touring exhibit at an Ohio museum, show a girl who lived more than 500 years ago in Peru.

The Cincinnati Museum Centre recently reported the results of a collaborative effort with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre to learn more about the remains.

The mummy is part of Mummies of the World: The Exhibition, on display at the museum until April 26.

The body was taken to the hospital in January to undergo X-rays and computer tomography.

Dr Andrew Trout, a Children's Hospital radiologist, says the machines produced stunning images of "beautifully preserved" bones and organs.

Hannah Gill-Frerking, director of science and education for the exhibit at the museum, and Trout estimate the child was about three-years-old.

The girl's people most likely placed her body in a space where the dead were kept, and Peru's hot, dry climate allowed for natural mummification.

The mummy was found sometime in the mid-20th century near El Cima, about 40km east of Peru's capital, Lima, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

A donor gave her to the San Diego Museum of Man in 1978.

Images of the girl's bones testify to seasonal food shortages, according to Trout and Gill-Frerking. They say the body did not show signs of violence or chronic disease.

The CT scans and X-rays of the girl's body are a significant improvement on earlier forms of mummy study, officials said. Gill-Frerking said that as late as the 1970s, examination of a mummy meant destroying it by unwrapping the body and performing an autopsy.

Resin replicas of the mummy's skull and of the whole skeleton were made with the help of a 3-D printer. Those copies will stay with the mummy for museum visitors to see the fine details of the body.