When most people think of mummies, their minds immediately turn to the golden sands of Egypt, where bandage-wrapped pharaohs rest within pyramids and tombs. For centuries, Egyptian mummification has been celebrated as one of the world’s earliest and most iconic preservation rituals. But new research suggests that the story of mummification is far older, and its origins may lie not in Egypt but in the misty forests and river valleys of China and Southeast Asia.
Archaeologists have found evidence that ancient societies in these regions were smoke-drying their dead more than 10,000 years ago—thousands of years earlier than Egypt’s first mummies. This revelation is not just about pushing back a timeline; it opens a window into the emotional lives, cultural beliefs, and resilience of early human communities who sought to keep their loved ones close in life and in death.
Beyond the Sands of Egypt
For decades, the Chilean Chinchorro mummies of the Atacama Desert—naturally preserved by the desert’s arid climate—were considered the earliest examples of mummification, predating Egypt’s embalmed rulers. But the new findings from China and Southeast Asia challenge this narrative.
Unlike the dry deserts of Chile, these regions are humid, filled with lush vegetation, heavy rainfall, and climates that should have quickly decayed bodies. Yet archaeologists noticed something peculiar about the skeletons unearthed in places like China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The remains were not charred like those of cremated bodies. Instead, they bore subtle scorch marks and were found in unusual, contorted positions—clues that hinted at an entirely different funerary practice.
Smoke as the Breath of Preservation
The breakthrough came when researchers analyzed the bones themselves. Chemical testing revealed that these ancient remains had been exposed to low, sustained heat. This was not the fierce fire of cremation but the steady warmth of smoke and embers.
It suggested that ancient people had deliberately placed their dead over slow-burning fires, carefully drying them rather than destroying them. This method—still found today in certain Indigenous practices in Indonesia’s Papua and parts of Australia—involved binding the bodies tightly and suspending them above a hearth for months at a time.
The goal was not simply preservation in the physical sense, but something far more profound: keeping the dead among the living. By drying the body instead of burying or burning it, families could continue to see, touch, and even speak to their loved ones. Smoke was more than a tool of preservation—it was a bridge between the realms of the living and the spirit world.
A Tradition Older than We Imagined
Some of the skeletons examined in this new study date back more than 10,000 years. That means long before Egyptian priests wrapped pharaohs in linen and resin, and even before many great civilizations emerged, communities in Asia had already mastered the art of intentional mummification.
This discovery forces us to rethink the history of human ritual. Mummification is not the invention of a single society but a practice that may have arisen in different corners of the world, shaped by local environments, needs, and beliefs. In tropical climates where rapid decay threatened the body’s survival, smoke-drying provided a uniquely effective solution.
Hsiao-chun Hung, senior research fellow at the Australian National University and co-author of the study, called the discovery “a great surprise.” The sheer antiquity of the practice, she noted, connects distant hunter-gatherer societies with traditions still alive in some Indigenous cultures today. It reveals a deep thread of human continuity across time and geography.
Rituals of the Living and the Dead
But this practice was not merely technical—it carried immense cultural meaning. In Indonesia, smoke-drying the dead was believed to allow the spirit freedom to roam during the day and return at night to rest in the preserved body. Families could still maintain a tangible relationship with their deceased relatives, ensuring that death did not sever the bonds of kinship.
To imagine these ancient communities is to picture firelight flickering beneath a carefully bound body, smoke rising into the night air, and families gathered in reverence. Each day, the fire was tended not only for preservation but for connection. In the rhythm of the flames, the living kept their ancestors close, their presence felt in the heartbeat of the home.
As Hung poignantly observed, this practice reflects something profoundly human: the wish that those we love might never truly leave us. To preserve the body was, in many ways, to preserve love itself.
A Forgotten Legacy Across Asia
The researchers argue that this practice may once have been widespread, known among hunter-gatherer societies across vast parts of Asia. Over time, as societies developed new burial customs and religions, smoke-drying may have faded from common use, remembered only in isolated traditions.
Yet its rediscovery reminds us that human history is not a straight line. It is a web of practices, beliefs, and innovations—some lost, some carried forward, and some hidden in plain sight. The smoke-dried mummies of ancient Asia reveal not only technical ingenuity but also the emotional landscapes of people who lived thousands of years ago.
The Human Story in Ash and Smoke
The significance of this discovery is not just archaeological. It speaks to the timeless struggle of humans everywhere to understand death and to find ways of easing its finality. Whether through the golden masks of Egypt, the desert mummies of Chile, or the smoke-dried ancestors of Asia, the message is the same: love does not easily let go.
The fires tended by ancient communities were not just for the dead. They were for the living too—embers of memory, hope, and connection, glowing against the vast unknown of mortality. In those flames, people found comfort, believing that the spirit could linger, that the dead could still be near, that absence could be softened into presence.
Conclusion: The Oldest Smoke of Memory
The discovery of smoke-dried mummies in China and Southeast Asia stretches the history of mummification back beyond Egypt, beyond Chile, to a time when human beings first began shaping rituals around the mysteries of death. It is a story that blends science with humanity, bones with memory, and fire with love.
Through smoke, ancient people found a way to keep their loved ones close, to honor their memory, and to believe that death was not an ending but a transformation. It is a practice that reminds us that across cultures, across millennia, one truth remains constant: the human heart has always longed for ways to make love eternal.
More information: Hung, Hsiao-chun et al, 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 (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2515103122. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2515103122
