What is it about?
This study reveals that early hunter-gatherers in southern China and Southeast Asia commonly practiced smoke-dried mummification for their deceased, a tradition reaching back at least 12,000 years. Remarkably, it endured into recent times: Indigenous groups in Australia continued similar practices into the early 20th century, and Papuan communities in the New Guinea Highlands maintained them into modern times.
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Why is it important?
This discovery shows that mummification began thousands of years earlier than we ever imagined, long before the Chinchorro culture in South America and Egypt’s Old Kingdom. It reflects not only the technical skill of early hunter-gatherers, but also their profound spiritual devotion: the desire to preserve their loved ones and keep the bond between the living and the dead alive, both in body and in spirit.
Perspectives
This study finally resolves decades-old questions about how to understand pre-Neolithic burials in southern China, Southeast Asia, and likely Jomon Japan. The journey of discovery has been fascinating, spanning vast geographies and linking the ancient with the modern. It has also been a privilege to work alongside leading archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, and physical anthropologists from across the region.
Hsiao-chun Hung
Australian National University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Earliest evidence of smoke-dried mummification: More than 10,000 years ago in southern China and Southeast Asia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2515103122.
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