The oldest human mummies in the world were received 10,000 years ago with dry drying techniques, as new research results found.
A study of dozens of corpses that were found at 11 graves in Southeast Asia and southern China showed how hunter collectors dried their ancestors in a densely stored fetal position due to fires.
The research published in Journal PNAs discovered mumification practices, which took place long before the famous ancient Egyptian mummies from 4,000 to 12,000 years.
The researchers analyzed human samples from 95 Prenolithic archaeological sites in southern China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. With non-invasive techniques such as X-rays, they were able to assess whether the skeletons were exposed to heat and whether this had taken place before the funeral.
They found that many bones were blackened and showed indications of thermal damage, while the graves themselves were not exposed to fire. However, their results showed that certain body parts were relatively low temperatures, whereby only certain skeletal regions were exposed to direct burns, which indicates a “different form of heat treatment” after death.
The researchers said that the rituals probably contained that the bodies were burned with fire and smoke instead of open flames and stand out from more conventional cremation practices.
The researchers discovered blackened bones (Hirofumi Matsumura)
According to academics, which still exist in some places, the rituals would be widespread in the communities in southern China and Southeast Asia.
In practical terms, it was likely that smoking technology was the “most effective” gone to preserve corpses in tropical climate zones – but that “care and consistency” indicated in the treatments that the preservation alone was not the only reason to treat the body with smoke and fire.
“Among the Anga, for example, people still believe that the spirit of the deceased roams freely during the day and returns to the mummified body at night,” they wrote. “Among the Taramindjeri of South Australia, mummification is associated with the hope of immortality.
“These beliefs underline the types of symbolism that could have been bound to the body and its treatment after death.”
They added that their results pointed out that smoked mummification may have been created earlier and more widespread than previously assumed.
The researchers said that this showed “a remarkably permanent series of cultural beliefs and corpse practices”.
“Our results underline a deep and permanent biological and cultural continuity that combines the old hunter-collector populations in Southeast Asia with modern indigenous communities in New Guinea and Australia,” they wrote.
“The Tradition of Smoked Mummification Serves as Compelling Evidence of Long-Term Cultural Percient Between Ancient Asian and Ethnographic Papuan and Australian Mortary Practices. Furthermore, Archaeological Find that Tradition May have been Known Among Hunter-Gatherer Societies ACROSS A Vast Region, For many Millennia, Extending From Northeastern Asia and Jomon Japan to Western Oceania and Australia, and Possibly Farther.
“This practice enabled the smoked and preserved remains of the deceased to maintain physical and spiritual connections to their ancestors, to bridge time and memory.”