The Tarim mummies were discovered at ancient cemeteries and settlements across the Tarim Basin, a large desert basin in present-day Xinjiang in northwestern China. The first remains became known to archaeologists during expeditions to the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. European explorers including Sven Hedin, a Swedish geographer and explorer; Albert von Le Coq, a German archaeologist; and Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, encountered naturally preserved human bodies while investigating ancient sites around the Taklamakan Desert, which occupies much of the centre of the basin.[15] Over the following century, hundreds of naturally mummified bodies were identified at sites around the basin.[16]

Some of the oldest remains were found in cemeteries around the eastern and southern margins of the desert. At Gumugou, a cemetery near the former Lop Nur lake in the eastern Tarim Basin, the earliest burials date to about 2135–1939 BCE, making them roughly 4,000 years old. The earliest mummies at Xiaohe Cemetery, another burial ground in the Lop Nur region, date to about 1884–1736 BCE, while those at Beifang, in the southern Tarim Basin, date to about 1785–1664 BCE.[16]