Because the rich Europeans ate all the Egyptian mummies they could

This bizarre practice, which reached its peak in the eighteenth century, originated in errors in translation of medieval documents – which gave rise to a great demand for Egyptian graves, and created a prosperous black mummy powder market.

For almost 700 years, rich Europeans consumed Egyptian mummies as a magical medicine, believing that these ancestral remains had curative properties.

The strange tradition began with bitumen, a viscous oil product that occurs naturally near the dead sea, says the.

Ancient civilizations used bitumen to waterproof surfaces and as a building material, and there are archaeological use that dates back to tens of thousands of years.

In the classic era, the bitumen became a popular medicine. The Romanist Naturalist Plínio, the old documented 27 medicinal applications of this dark liquid – including the treatment of Epilepsy, leprosy and tooth pain.

After the fall of Rome, Muslim scholars preserved this medical knowledge. Arab doctors like Avicena They prescribed bitumen for concussions and paralysis, calling it “Mūmiyah” – From the Persian word to” wax “.

This terminology proved to be crucial for the confusion that would later settle-and that would last for centuries.

The ancient Egyptian mummies not even were coated with bitumenbut its coating of dark resin He resembled viscous liquid, which led some people to believe that the two substances were identical.

In the twelfth century, the Italian translator Gerardo de Cremona He came across Arab references to the medicinal Mūmiyah and interpreted him as coming from Egyptian graves, describing him as “liquid of the dead mixed with spices of conservation ”.

This translation error Created a perfect stormand the Crusaders who returned from the Middle East brought with them the fashion of bitumen medicines.

But the Natural Betumen suppliesformed by hydrocarbons and that can occur both in nature and to be artificially obtained in an oil distillation process, They were limited.

Alexandrian entrepreneurial traders realized that they had available Large quantities of “Mumia”which covered the corpses of the ancient Egyptians, and began to loot graves, undoing the resin bodies to collect and export the viscous liquid to Europe.

A popular remedy

“Mumia” has become extremely popular in every old continent, being sold in any well-stocked apotheics.

The influential pharmacopoeia “” listed in 1640 Mumia as a treatment for headaches, seizures, heart problemspoisoning, snake bites and Numerous other maleites. The treatments typically combined Mumia with wine or goat milk.

The French King Francisco I It usually brought with it a mixture of Ruibarbo and Mumia, and the chemist of the English king Carlos II specifically recommended the use of Mumia Libya. Between 1618 and 1747 the English College of Doctors included the mummy in its official pharmacopoeia, describing it as “Something Acre and Bitter“.

But not everything went well in supply chain. The Egyptian authorities opposed the withdrawal of tombs and export of corpses.

In 1428, Cairo employees captured and tortured several people linked to a mummy trafficking scheme, which confessed to steal tombs and boiling mummified bodies to extract salable oil.

Despite export prohibitions, law enforcement was often negligent – in particular with the help from a nice bribery. In 1586, the English merchant John Sanderson He was successfully exported 272 kg of mummified remains after applying “correct bribes and greetings”.

The high demand for Mumia also led to widespread falsification of magic liquid. Many salespeople They found it easier to get fresh corpses Of executed criminals, plague victims and enslaved people instead of digging old tombs.

The Italian traveler Ludovico di Varthema documented local production from Mumia from Recently deceased desert travelers – or a slightly more expensive source: “dry and embalmed bodies of kings and princes“.

However, the famous Swiss doctor and alchemist Paracelsusconsidered the “father of toxicology”, came to give an extra impetus to the mummy trade, arguing that Any preserved human flesh contained vital energy beneficial.

To make his mummy, Paracelsus left a fresh body exposed outdoors. The best bodies were young and healthy men that they had died suddenly. In one of your recipes, it specifies your preference for “a man 24 -year -old redhead who had been executed recently”.

In the sixteenth century, medical professionals began to question the practice. The surgeon Ambroise Paré He published a 1582 treaty, in which he argued that most of the mummy was manufactured in France from recent corpses and caused stomach disorders and bad breath instead of healing.

By this time, the German doctor Leonhart Fuchs finally identified the medieval translation errors that had created the concept of “Mumia” and denounced “stupid credulity of certain doctors of our generation ” who still prescribed the little one.

At the end of the Victorian era, The mummy had finally fallen into disuse “But it remained available for sale, and to be occasionally prescribed until the early twentieth century.”

The drug was last seen for sale in a Merck Catalog of 1908. The German pharmacist announced “genuine Egyptian mummy while there is Stock, 17.5 milestones per kilogram“.

Thus, the rich Europeans eventually did not eat all the mummies-first of all, because archaeologists continue to find them. But almost a millennium of looting in Egypt led to the loss of historical and cultural knowledge Incalculable – in exchange for a panacea that promised to heal all ills.