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The world's oldest known mummies, described in 2025, were not embalmed but smoke-dried: in southern China and Southeast Asia, some bodies were slowly dried over fires more than 10,000 years ago.

PNAS (2025)

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The study, published in PNAS, looked at hunter-gatherer burials from sites in southern China, Vietnam, Indonesia and nearby regions. Many bodies had been placed in tightly crouched positions, and their bones showed burn marks. Tests of the bone chemistry showed they had been heated gently and for a long time rather than burned on a pyre, which points to drying over a smoky fire before burial. That makes them older than the Chinchorro mummies of Chile, about 7,000 years old, and far older than Egypt's embalmed dead. The researchers compare the practice with the smoke-drying of the dead that some peoples of highland New Guinea, such as the Dani and the Anga, kept up into the 20th century.

Türkçe oku
Dünyanın bilinen en eski mumyaları kimyasallarla değil, dumanla korunmuştu. 2025'te tanımlanan bu bedenler, güney Çin ve Güneydoğu Asya'da, bir kısmı 10.000 yıldan daha önce, ateşin üzerinde yavaş yavaş kurutulmuştu.
PNAS (2025)

PNAS dergisinde yayımlanan çalışma, güney Çin, Vietnam, Endonezya ve çevresindeki alanlardan avcı-toplayıcı gömülerini inceledi. Bedenlerin çoğu sıkıca büzülmüş, neredeyse çömelir hâlde gömülmüştü ve kemiklerinde yanık izleri vardı. Kemiklerin kimyasal analizi, bunların bir ölü ateşinde yakılmadığını, uzun süre hafif ısıya maruz kaldığını gösterdi; yani bedenler gömülmeden önce dumanlı bir ateşin üzerinde kurutulmuştu. Bu da onları, yaklaşık 7.000 yıllık Şili'deki Chinchorro mumyalarından eski, Mısır'ın tahnit edilmiş ölülerinden ise çok daha eski yapıyor. Araştırmacılar bu geleneği, Yeni Gine'nin dağlık bölgelerinde Dani ve Anga gibi bazı toplulukların 20. yüzyıla dek ölülerini dumanla kurutmasına benzetiyor.

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