The oldest human mummies were slowly smoked 14,000 years ago
New Scientist23 hrs
World's Oldest Known Mummies Found in Southeast Asia
Above: Mapu Tsho neolithic relics site in the city of Xigaze, China. Image copyright: Xizang Institute for Protection and Research of Cultural Relics/Xinhua/Getty Images
The Spin
Narrative A
This groundbreaking discovery fundamentally reshapes our understanding of ancient human cultural sophistication and the origins of mummification practices worldwide. The evidence clearly demonstrates that Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers developed complex mortuary traditions thousands of years before the famous Egyptian and South American cultures, revealing a level of spiritual and technical advancement previously unrecognized in these early societies.
Narrative B
While the findings are intriguing, the dating methods used in this study could have been more robust, and it remains unclear whether smoke-drying was consistently practiced across all the identified Southeast Asian locations. The interpretation relies heavily on comparisons to modern practices, which may not accurately reflect ancient intentions or methods, particularly given the absence of preserved soft tissue in the archaeological samples.