For centuries, Europeans ground up Egyptian mummies and consumed them as medicine. The practice originated from a mistranslation: the Arabic word 'mumiya' (bitumen/natural pitch used medicinally) was confused with actual mummified human remains. The error persisted for 500 years.
“For centuries, Europeans ground up Egyptian mummies and consumed them as medicine. The practice originated from a mistranslation: the Arabic word 'mumiya' (bitumen/natural pitch used medicinally) was confused with actual mummified human remains. The error persisted for 500 years.”
This isn't metaphorical. For roughly five centuries, Europeans literally ground up Egyptian mummies — real preserved human bodies — and consumed them as medicine. The reason? A catastrophic mistranslation that nobody bothered to correct.
The Arabic word "mumiya" referred to bitumen — a naturally occurring petroleum pitch that had genuine medicinal uses in the ancient world. When European scholars translated Arabic medical texts, they confused "mumiya" (the substance) with "mummy" (the preserved body). Since Egyptian mummies were coated in pitch-like resins, the logical leap was made: the whole body must be medicine.
What began as a translation error became a massive industry. Egyptian tombs were raided specifically to supply European apothecaries. "Mummy powder" was prescribed for everything from headaches to plague. When real mummies became scarce, merchants began mummifying recently deceased bodies — or even executing people — to meet demand.
The medical establishment of the era knew the practice was based on a misunderstanding. Several physicians wrote about the error. But the trade was too profitable to stop, and admitting the truth would have undermined the credibility of the entire medical profession. Sound familiar?
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