Smoke-dried bodies could be world’s ‘oldest mummies’: study

Some ancient societies in China and southeast Asia appear to have smoke-dried their dead, effectively mummifying them thousands of years earlier than their Egyptian counterparts, new research has found.

While the bandage-bound bodies of ancient Egypt date back perhaps as far as 4,500 years ago, the oldest previously known examples of mummification are from ancient Chilean societies.

There, the dry air of the Atacama coastline allowed for natural mummification by drying.

But the bodies retrieved by researchers from China and southeast Asia came largely from humid regions.

The scientists were initially intrigued by the contorted positions of skeletons found in burial sites in China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The remains appeared to have scorch mar