Southeast Asians created the oldest known human mummies roughly 7,000 years before Egyptian mummies debuted, researchers say.
From around 12,000 to 4,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers across southern China, Southeast Asia and islands to the south and east bound the dead in crouched postures. They then slowly dried the bodies over smoky, low-temperature fires for several months, say archaeologist Hsiao-chun Hung of Australian National University in Canberra and colleagues.
Researchers studied modern smoke-dried mummies, such as this example from the Dani people of the New Guinea Highlands, to reconstruct how ancient groups preserved the curled-up bodies of the dead.Hirofumi Matsumura and Hsiao-chun Hung
Extended smoke-drying of bodies before burial represents