The oldest mummies in the world are 10,000 years old. An unusual mummification technique.

Examinations of hundreds of graves in China, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia revealed that many of the skeletons were in a tight, fetal position. Traces of soot on the bones indicate that the bodies were smoked for a long time over a fire before burial . The study's findings were published in the journal PNAS.

"Smoking likely had spiritual and cultural significance beyond just slowing down decomposition," said Hsiao-chun Hung of the Australian National University, lead author of the study, quoted by Live Science.

Smoking as a form of body preservation

Scientists used X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy to confirm that the bones were heated at low temperatures. No signs of burning, typical of cremation, were found. This suggests that hunter-gatherer societies in southern China and Southeast Asia developed a specialized funerary ritual involving the drying of bodies with smoke.

This practice is still prevalent in some regions. In 2019, researchers in Papua observed the Dani and Pumo tribes binding the bodies of their dead and smoking them over fire until they were completely blackened. From this, the researchers conclude that ancient corpses were also bound and slowly dried.

Although only bones were preserved in the graves examined, Hung considers them mummies because the smoking process was deliberate and slowed decomposition. "In the hot and humid climate of Southeast Asia, smoking was likely the most effective way to preserve bodies," Hung explains.

Ancient people may have discovered this method accidentally, for example, during fire rituals or by imitating the smoking of animal meat. Hung emphasizes that this practice allowed ancestors to symbolically "remain among the living" and was an expression of love and remembrance for the dead.

Evidence of early migrations

The discovery of the mummies may support the so-called two-layer model of migration to Southeast Asia. This model posits that the first hunter-gatherers arrived around 65,000 years ago, followed much later—around 4,000 years ago—by farmers with different funerary traditions.

Ivy Hui-Yuan Yeh of Nanyang Technological University, who was not affiliated with the study, said the results support this model and are consistent with what is known about early human migrations in the region.

If all hyperflexed burials were the result of smoking, this means that the practice may have been much older and more widespread than archaeological findings suggest.

The oldest traces of mummification

The process of drying bodies with smoke may date back to the early expansion of Homo sapiens from Africa into Southeast Asia, perhaps as far back as 42,000 years ago. According to the researchers, this is evidence of "deep and enduring biological and cultural continuity" in the region.

Hung concludes that the practice of smoking the dead was not only a method of preservation, but also an important ritual that allowed ancient communities to maintain a connection with their ancestors and shape group identity.