Hung et al. / PNAS
New research indicates that mummification rituals are much older than thought and were not as isolated in Egyptian and Chilean cultures as it was supposed.
The origins of mummification can be much older and more widespread than previously believed. A new published in PNAS reveals that deliberate mummification was practiced in Southeast Asia and southern China 12,000 years ago – Several millennia before the famous Egyptian and Chilean traditions.
The study, led by archaeologist Hsiao-Chun Hung of the Australian National University, examined 69 bone samples of 54 burials in 11 archaeological sites in southern China, northern Vietname and Indonesia.
The remains, dated between 4000 and 12000 years ago, had clear signs of heat exposure, soot deposits and even cut -out marks with ritual processing.
Using X -ray (XRD) diffraction and infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transform (FTIR), the researchers determined that about 84% of samples had been exposed to the fire.
Unlike embalming and desiccation practices of the old Egypt or Chiler’s Chinchorro culture, these ancient Asian communities seem to have smoked their dead in low and burning bonfires for weeks or months.
The process is very similar to the traditions still observed among the people Dani, from New Guinea, where the bodies are tied firmly, suspended on stewardy and preserved flames for prolonged mourning or ritual display.
In the pre-nomalytic contexts studied, however, the mummified remains were finally buried, frequently in crouch or fetal position.
The findings not only suggest that mummification independently developed thousands of years before it was thought, but also that it can represent a lasting cultural line that extends through Asia and Oceania.
Genetic and physical evidence connects these communities to indigenous populations of New Guinea and Australia, reinforcing the idea of shared traditions over vast distances, says.
This discovery challenges the predominant narrative that mummification It was a rare and localized invention.
Instead, it may have been a widely widespread funeral solution among hunter-gatherer societies, designed to preserve the body for enough time to maintain spiritual and ancestral links.
“The remains smoked and preserved from the dead allowed people maintain physical and spiritual links With their ancestors, linking time and memory, ”the investigators concluded.
