Smoke-dried bodies the oldest-known evidence of deliberate human mummification, study claims A study of burial sites in southern China and South-East Asia, between 4,000 and 14,000 years old, has found evidence that some bodies were gently heated after death.

The researchers claim this means the bodies were smoked for preservation, making them the oldest-known evidence of human mummification, and predating Egyptian mummies by around 10,000 years.

But not all archaeologists think the bodies were deliberately preserved via smoking. (read on)