Earliest Evidence of Intentional Mummification: 12,000‑Year‑Old Smoke‑Dried Burials Found in Southern China
Study of 95 pre‑Neolithic sites suggests corpses were bound, smoke‑dried over low‑temperature fires and then buried — a practice persisting for millennia and predating Egyptian mummification
Archaeologists report the earliest known evidence of intentional mummification after analysis of skeletal remains from pre‑Neolithic sites in southern China that they conclude were smoke‑dried before burial. The study, led by researchers at the Australian National University and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, draws on material from 95 archaeological sites and identifies treatment of corpses that the authors say is consistent with an extended period of smoking to desiccate soft tissues.
The researchers recorded burial positions — predominantly tightly crouched or hyper‑flexed postures often with signs of tight binding — and a lack of expected bone separation produced by decomposition of fresh bodies. Microscopic examination of selected bone samples revealed evidence of exposure to heat at relatively low intensities and visible burning and cutting marks on some excavated bones. "We present evidence to suggest that corpses were…smoked to cure and mummify the skins around their skeletons," the authors wrote.
Among the individual finds cited by the team are a middle‑aged male from the Huiyaotian site in Guangxi, recovered in a hyper‑flexed posture and dated to more than 9,000 years ago, and a young male from the Liyupo site, dated to around 7,000 years ago, whose skull shows partial burning. The combination of tightly compacted postures, binding traces and the microstructural heat signatures led the authors to conclude that many corpses were desiccated — smoke‑dried — prior to interment rather than being buried while still fresh.
Based on the archaeological patterns, the team proposes a sequence for prehistoric smoke‑drying mummification: corpses were bound in varying degrees, often placed in hyper‑flexed positions, positioned above a low‑temperature fire for an extended period to smoke‑dry the skin and soft tissues, then moved to dwellings, purpose‑built huts, rock shelters or caves before final burial. The paper notes that most smoked corpses were ultimately buried intact, although some had decayed before interment.
The researchers argue the practice persisted in southeastern Asia for more than 10,000 years and therefore predates the well‑known mummification traditions associated with Ancient Egypt and with the Chinchorro culture of coastal Chile. They also point to ethnographic parallels in contemporary Indigenous Australian and Highland New Guinea mortuary treatments that involve binding and smoking as ways to preserve remains and to manage the body‑spirit relationship.
"In practical terms, smoking was likely the most effective option for preserving corpses in tropical climates, where heat and humidity would otherwise have caused rapid decomposition," the authors wrote. They added that the consistency and care evident in these treatments suggest preservation alone may not have been the only consideration, invoking local beliefs recorded ethnographically in which the spirit of the deceased roams during the day and returns to the physical body at night, or notions linked to hopes for continued existence.
Natural mummification — preservation of skin and organs without chemical treatment — can occur under a limited range of environmental conditions, including extreme cold, aridity or oxygen‑poor peat bogs. The report distinguishes the Chinese findings from such accidental preservation by emphasising deliberate, repeated and culturally patterned treatments applied to corpses. The authors cite both the archaeological signatures and the microscopic evidence of low‑temperature heat exposure as the basis for interpreting the treatments as intentional smoke‑drying.
The discovery expands the known geographic and temporal range of deliberate body preservation and provides new evidence of long‑term mortuary practices in prehistoric southeastern Asia. The authors say the findings offer insight into social beliefs and rituals surrounding death well before the emergence of later, better‑documented mummification systems. Further research, they note, could refine the chronology and regional variation of these practices and better link burial treatment to contemporaneous social and environmental conditions.