Mummies are most often associated with Egypt , where the oldest ones are about 4,500 years old. But researchers say they have found mummies that are much older, on the other side of the world.

“We found that in southern China and Southeast Asia , there were many archeological sites that contain human burials that are between four and 14,000 years old,” Professor Peter Bellwood, a co-author of the study, told NBC News in a phone interview on Tuesday.

The study, which was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined 54 pre-Neolithic burials from 11 archaeological sites in southern China and Southeast Asia, with large numbers of samples coming from Vietnam and China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and smaller numbers coming from the Phi

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