An international team of researchers has uncovered evidence of the world’s oldest known mummies, dating back more than 10,000 years, in southern China and Southeast Asia. The findings, published on September 15, 2025 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that smoke-dried mummification was practiced thousands of years earlier than similar traditions in Egypt and South America.
The study analyzed 54 human remains from 11 pre-Neolithic sites using X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. These tests revealed signs of light heating and smoke exposure, indicating that bodies were deliberately preserved through smoke-drying rather than being simply buried. Many skeletons were found in crouched or flexed positions, suggesting cultural rituals surrounding death and burial.
“This represents the earliest evidence of intentional mummification anywhere in the world,” Hsiao-chung Hung, the authors of this research wrote. “It shows that hunter-gatherer communities in tropical Southeast Asia developed complex mortuary practices long before farming societies emerged.”
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Although the primary focus of the research was southern China, Laos, and nearby regions, Indonesia played an important role in the study. Scientists from the Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) were listed among the co-authors, contributing to laboratory analysis and regional comparisons.
The findings also resonate with traditions documented in Papua, Indonesia. The Dani people of Baliem Valley, for example, have long practiced smoke-drying of bodies as part of their cultural rituals. Archaeologists say this ethnographic parallel strengthens the interpretation that ancient Southeast Asian groups intentionally preserved their dead using similar methods.
Until now, the world’s earliest recognized mummies came from the Chinchorro culture of South America, dated to about 7,000 years ago. The new evidence pushes the timeline of intentional mummification back at least 5,000 years earlier.
Experts say the discovery forces a rethinking of global mortuary traditions. Rather than being unique to large civilizations such as Egypt, complex body preservation methods appear to have developed independently in small, mobile communities in tropical Asia.
“This challenges long-standing narratives in archaeology,” said Hung. “It reminds us that early humans across different environments had sophisticated symbolic practices and views on life and death.” (Wage Erlangga)
