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2d ago

Study Reports World’s Oldest Deliberate Mummies in Southeast Asia, Dating Back 12,000–14,000 Years

Analyses of bone microstructure suggest bodies were smoke-dried in tightly bound crouched positions before burial across southern China and Southeast Asia.

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Examples of Early and Middle Holocene human burials from southern China. This figure shows six human burials from Huiyaotian in Long’an, located in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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Left: Middle-aged woman at the Liyupo site in southern China who was smoke-dried prior to burial. Note: Bone fragments belonging to a second individual have been digitally removed from the lower left corner; Right: Modern hyper-flexed, smoke-dried mummy of the Dani people, kept in a private household in the Baliem Valley of Wamena, Jayawijaya Regency, Papua (Indonesia).

Overview

  • The peer-reviewed PNAS study examined 54 burials from 11 sites and identifies prolonged low-temperature heating on most sampled bones using X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy.
  • Researchers document hyper-flexed postures and localized charring that they argue reflect deliberate smoke-drying rather than cremation or natural decay.
  • Most burials date to roughly 12,000–4,000 years ago, with one visually assessed example in Vietnam reported as older than 14,000 years.
  • The findings would predate Chinchorro and Egyptian mummification and suggest a mortuary adaptation suited to humid tropical environments with ethnographic parallels in Papua and parts of Australia.
  • External specialists caution that some dates and interpretations need stronger verification, noting instances of higher-heat exposure and calling for broader direct dating and replication.