{"id":576851,"date":"2026-04-28T11:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=576851"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:14:07","slug":"worlds-oldest-mummies-found-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/worlds-oldest-mummies-found-in-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s oldest mummies found in Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_576852\" style=\"max-width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-576852 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-notas-mumia-2025-11-800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1184\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-notas-mumia-2025-11-800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-notas-mumia-2025-11-800-250x370.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-notas-mumia-2025-11-800-700x1036.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-notas-mumia-2025-11-800-120x178.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">HUNG, H.-C. <em>et al<\/em>. <strong>PNAS<\/strong>. 2025<\/span>One of the skeletons unearthed in southern China, dated at 12,000 to 14,000 years old<span class=\"media-credits\">HUNG, H.-C. <em>et al<\/em>. <strong>PNAS<\/strong>. 2025<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>After examining the remains of 54 human bodies, archaeologists from the Australian National University identified human mummies in Southeast Asia at least 7,000 years older than those found in Egypt. Between 12,000 and 4,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers in southern China, Southeast Asia, and nearby islands\u2014including Borneo and Java\u2014bound their dead in squatting positions and slowly dried them over smoldering, low-temperature fires for several months before burial. Lengthy exposure to smoke mummified the skin of the corpses, preventing the skeletons from disintegrating. The same technique is still used in mountainous areas of the island of New Guinea, Indonesia. The Chinchorro people, who lived in what is now northern Chile and southern Peru between 7000 and 1500 BCE, developed their mummification techniques around 7,000 years ago, removing internal organs before leaving bodies to dry in the desert. The Egyptians\u2019 use of resins and other embalming substances to mummify the dead emerged about 6,300 years ago (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1073\/pnas.2515103122\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Science News<\/em> and <em>PNAS<\/em><\/a>, September 15).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12,000-year-old mummies in Southeast Asia are even older than those found in Egypt","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[202,241],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-576851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-archaeology","tag-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576856,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576851\/revisions\/576856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576851"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=576851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}