In southern China, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia, researchers have found the remains of people who were mummified thousands of years ago. The condition of their bones suggests that the corpse was specifically dried in the smoke. Some of the skeletons examined are almost 10,000 years old. It could be the oldest known mummies in the world. Accordingly, people in Southeast Asia have buried their dead by mummification long before cultures in ancient Egypt and in South America.
People from different countries and cultures have very different rituals and practices to bury their deceased. However, some procedures are also similar. Similar to our dead people, the deadlock is often buried today, for example, many peoples do this in Southeast Asia – but only in the recent past. On the other hand, 12,000 to 4000 years ago- before people from the west migrated to Southeast Asia- the hunter and collectibles there still buried their dead mostly in bent, tightly crouched or crouching attitude. To do this, they often put together their bones closely, as numerous archaeological finds prove. Often these deaths also showed fire traces or their bodies were partially dismembered by post-mortem.
Earlier burial practices in Southeast Asia in sight
A team for Hsiao-Chun Hung from the Australian National University in Canberra has now examined these early, prehistoric funeral rituals in Southeast Asia. For this purpose, the researchers analyzed human bones from hundreds of graves of 95 archaeological sites in southern China, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia, including especially caves and understates. Hung and his colleagues compared the position of the bones and their condition. Using infrared spectroscopy, they also analyzed the microstructures inside a few bone samples.
It was confirmed that the hunter and collectibles in Southeast Asia once mostly buried their dead in a closely compacted, compact attitude. “Many of the skeletons were so bent and twisted that there were no gaps between the limbs and the fuselage. This suggests that there were no soft tissues when the skeletons were buried, perhaps apart from dried skin,” writes the team. The bones of the dead also showed hardly any traces of decay, but instead traces of heat influence or burn. However, since the skeletons were only partially and not completely burned, “the intended treatment was most likely not a complete cremation,” write hung and his colleagues.
These finds suggest that the corpses were not buried immediately after death, but were previously dried out in a targeted manner. The drying of the closely tied body could have taken place over a fire on a frame in the smoke and took a long time on how the condition of the bones suggests. Apparently some parts of the body were exposed to low temperatures. This slow drying is a form of mummification that is also known from other cultures. For example, some indigenous peoples in Australia mumified their dead in this way and some cultures in the highlands of New Guineas still do so today.
Mumification in Asia 10,000 years ago
However, not only the funeral ritual itself, but above all the age of the mummies, is not only remarkable to the finds from Southeast Asia: some of them are over 9000 years old, as dated. This suggests that early communities in Southeast Asia have already mummified their deceased, long before cultures in ancient Egypt or in the South American countries did so. Accordingly, the oldest known mummy of the world could come from Asia and not from Chile as previously assumed.
The oldest mummy of the so-called chinchorro culture is “only” about 7000 years old. Unlike the bodies dried in the damp climate of Southeast Asia, the Chilean corpses in the dry climate of the Atacama desert were naturally mummified. The oldest Egyptian mummy was created about 4500 years ago by embalming. Despite the different drying techniques, these burial practices are common that the corpse was treated specifically before the funeral and preserved by mumification from decay. “With this custom, the smoked and preserved remains of the deceased enabled people to maintain physical and spiritual connections to their ancestors and thus bridge the time and memory,” write dog and his colleagues.
However, it is still unclear with which concrete beliefs in relation to body and mind the hunter and collectors’ communities of Southeast Asia combined this practice. Follow-up studies should now clarify whether it is similar beliefs as in Australia and New Guinea and therefore there is a historical-social connection between the former mumification practices in Southeast Asia and Australia and today’s New Guinea. “Archaeological finds indicate that this tradition was known among hunter and collectibles in a huge area for many thousands of years, which extended from northeast Asia and the Jomon-Japan to Westozeania and Australia and possibly further,” said the team.
Source: Hsiao-Chun Hung (Australian National University, Canberra) et al.; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/PNAS.2515103122
