Science & technology

World's Oldest Known Mummies Found in Southeast Asia

Published SEP 16 2025

#Science & technology

World's Oldest Known Mummies Found in Southeast Asia

Story

Above: Mapu Tsho neolithic relics site in the city of Xigaze, China. Image credit: Xizang Institute for Protection and Research of Cultural Relics/Xinhua/Getty Images

The Facts

In a study published on Monday in the journal PNAS, a team of researchers reported the discovery of evidence of smoke-dried mummification practices in Southeast Asia and southern China, dating back 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, making them the oldest known human mummies in the world.
PNAS
Science News
New Scientist
Scientists analyzed 54 pre-Neolithic burials from 11 archaeological sites across southern China, northern Vietnam and Indonesia using X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy techniques. Approximately 84% of the 64 testable bone samples showed evidence of prolonged exposure to low-temperature heating.
CNN
ScienceAlert
Sky News
The newly discovered mummification practices predate previously known examples by thousands of years, including those of the Chinchorro culture of northern Chile, dating back to approximately 7,000 years ago, and ancient Egyptian mummification, which began around 4,500 years ago.
Livescience.Com
CBS News
The Telegraph
The Southeast Asian smoke-drying tradition persisted for over 8,000 years, continuing until around 4,000 years ago when farming populations became dominant in the region.
New Scientist
CNN
The Telegraph
Modern smoke-dried mummification practices continue today among Indigenous communities in the New Guinea Highlands and parts of Australia. The Dani people of Papua, Indonesia, still bind deceased relatives in crouching poses and expose them to smoke for weeks or months before burial.
Livescience.Com
CNN
Fox 28 Spokane
The practice may have originated from beliefs about preserving revered ancestors and could potentially date back to early human migration from Africa into Southeast Asia, which occurred around 42,000 to 65,000 years ago.
Livescience.Com
The Conversation
Fox 28 Spokane

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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.

CBS News

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.

Sky News