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An Inca child from Chile’s Cerro El Plomo, who was ritually sacrificed over 500 years ago and well preserved as a frozen mummy, did not die “peacefully” as previously assumed, but from a blow to the head, a new study has found.

The iconic Plomo mummy of the eight-year-old, found in a sitting position clutching his knees, has been studied by archaeologists for decades since its discovery in 1954.

Previous researchers assumed that the boy was given anesthetics and put to sleep before being placed in his icy grave, where he suffocated.

The Chilean National Museum of Natural History reports that the child was killed around 1460 during a sacrificial ceremony called Qhapaq hucha or Capacocha, which was probably attended by nobles, priests and officials of the Inca Empire.

Researchers said there were tracks on the boy’s feet that indicated he had walked more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from south-central Peru to Cerro El Plomo over several months before his death. These footprints are visible.

Experts believe his final moments were likely marked by exhaustion from the long journey, the high altitude and the ingestion of a sedative before he was placed in a rectangular chamber with a frozen floor, which led to hypothermia and death.

A grave offering was also placed next to the boy, including ceremonial objects, including two camel figurines – one made of a gold and silver alloy and the other made of seashells.

Archaeologists suspect that with such sacrifices the Incas probably tried to ensure that the best representatives of humanity joined their deities.

But recent research is changing views on how these ritual sacrifices were carried out.

New CT X-rays of the Plomo mummy’s head show signs of “skillfully executed” blunt trauma to the frontal bone of the boy’s skull.

The trauma was probably caused by a blunt object moving from right to left as the child stood with his head bowed, museum researchers said.

These new findings challenge previous ideas about the nature of ritual child sacrifices to the sun god in the Inca Empire, especially during the harvest month.

Shortly before his death, the boy also appeared to have consumed a “large amount of food” that remained undigested in his intestines.

A genome analysis also confirms that his ancestors came from the central southern Andes and from indigenous peoples from northern Chile and the southern highlands of Peru.

However, its exact origin has not yet been determined.