The team excavated an old hunter collector cemetery in Guangxi, southern China (Hsiao-Chun Hung)
The smoke -dry mummification of human remains was practiced by hunters and collectors in southern China, Southeast Asia and beyond, and I report that my colleagues and I were published today in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.
This is the earliest known proof of mummification all over the world, far older than better known examples from ancient Egypt and South America.
We examined the remains of locations between 12,000 and 4,000 years, but the tradition never completely disappeared. It remained in parts of the new and Australia in modern times.
Hunter collector burials in southern China and Southeast Asia
In southern China and Southeast Asia, strictly flocked or crouching burials are a characteristic of the hunters and collectors who lived in the region about 20,000 and 4,000 years ago.
Archaeologists who work in the region for a long time have classified these graves as simple “primary burials”. This means that the body became intact intact in a single ceremony.
Hunter collectors in a crouching or crouching attitude were found in southern China and Southeast Asia (Hung et al. / PNAS)
However, our colleague Hirofumi Matsumura, an experienced physical anthropologist and anatomist, noticed that some skeletons were arranged in a way that resisted the anatomical sense.
In combination with this observation, we often saw that some bones were partially burned in these bodies. The signs of burns such as charred were mainly visible in the parts of the body with less muscle mass and thinner soft tissue pull.
We began to ask ourselves whether the deceased might be treated as a simple funeral by a more complicated process.
An informal conversation in the field
A turning point took place in September 2017 during a short break from our excavation at the Bauen location you took place in the center of Vietnam.
The deceased Kim dung Nguyen emphasized the difficulties in interpreting the situation in which skeletons were found, probably placed on purpose and sit against large stones. Matsumura noticed problems with her bone positions.
I remember how I was expelled – half joke, but really curious – “Could these burials be similar to the smoked mummies of Papua -New Guinea?”
Matsumura seriously thought about this idea. Thanks to the generous support and the cooperation of many colleagues, this moment was the real beginning of our research to this secret.
How we identified the old smoked mummies
With our new curiosity, we began to look at photos of modern, smoked mumification practices in the new countries in New Guinea in books and on the Internet.
In January 2019 we went to Wamena in Papua (Indonesia) to observe several modern smoked mummies that were kept in private households. The similarity to our old remains was striking. But most of the skeletons in our excavation showed no externally obvious signs of burning.
We found that we needed a scientific test to prove our hypothesis. If a body is still smoking through the skin, muscles and tissue due to low temperature fire-the bones would obviously not be blackened. But they could still keep subtle signs or microscopic traces of previous shot or smoking.
Then came the Covid pandemic, which led to travel restrictions and prevented us from traveling anywhere. My colleagues and I were distributed in different regions, but we were looking for various ways to continue the project.
Finally, we tested bones from 54 burials at 11 places using two independent laboratory techniques, which are referred to as X-rays and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. These methods can recognize microscopic changes in the structure of bone material caused by high temperatures.
The results confirmed that the remains were exposed to low heat. In other words, almost all of them were smoked.
More than 10,000 years of ritual
The rehearsals that were discovered in southern China, Vietnam and Indonesia represent the oldest known examples of mumification. They are far older than the known practices of chinchorro culture in Northern Chile (about 7,000 years ago) and even the ancient Egyptian kingdom (about 4,500 years ago).
About the author
Hsiao-Chun Hung is Senior Research Fellow at the School of Culture, History & Language at the Australian National University.
This article will be released from the conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Remarkably, this funeral practice in East Asia was widespread and probably also in Japan. In Southeast Asia, more than 20,000 years can go back.
It lasted until around 4,000 years ago when new ways of life began. Our research shows a unique mix of technology, tradition and faith. This cultural practice has been going on for thousands of years and has spread in a very wide region.
A visible shape with bridge time and memory
Ethnographic records show that this tradition in South Australia survived far in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the new countries in New Guinea, some municipalities have recently received practice alive. Significantly, the hunter collectors of South China and Southeast Asia were closely associated with indigenous peoples of New Guinea and Australia, both in some physical properties and in their genetic ancestors.
Both in South Australia and Papua New Guinea show ethnographic records that the preparation of a single smoked mummy can take up to three months of continuous care. Such an extraordinary dedication was only possible through deep love and powerful spiritual belief.
This tradition reflects a truth that is as old as humanity itself: the timeless longing that families and relatives remain tied together forever – through the age groups in any form in which the relationship can last.