They first thought that the bandaged corpses of the ancient Egyptians could cure any disease. Later, it all turned into macabre entertainment. Whatever the reason, the reality is that there was a time in the history of Europe when some of its citizens decided to eat the Egyptian mummies.
The obsession with the dead of Ancient Egypt began to awaken in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, apothecaries ground up human remains brought from the banks of the Nile because they believed they had otherworldly medicinal properties. The idea became so widespread that mummies were prescribed as medicine for the next 500 years.
Mumia was the name given to that product created from embalmed bodies, a medicinal substance consumed for centuries by rich and poor, available in the most reputable apothecaries throughout the European continent and created from the mummified remains brought from the Egyptian tombs, explains Professor Marcus Harmes of the University of Southern Queensland in an article in The Conversation magazine.
“The belief that mummies could cure diseases led people to ingest something that tasted horrible for centuries,” explains the researcher. "In a world without antibiotics, doctors prescribed crushed skulls, bones, and meat to treat ailments, from headaches to reducing swelling to curing the plague," he adds.
Not that everyone trusted 100% in the properties of this product. There were also (thankfully) skeptics like Dr. Guy de la Fontaine, who doubted that mumia was a useful medicine, especially since he had witnessed fake mummies made from dead peasants in Alexandria in 1564.
“The forgeries illustrate an important point: there was a constant demand for corpses to use in medicine and the supply of real Egyptian mummies could not meet it,” says Harmes. Apothecaries and herbalists continued to dispense this type of medicine until the 18th century.
Like de la Fontaine, other doctors also did not think that dry and old mummies were the best medicine. In fact, many of these thought that it was much better (!) to use fresh meat and blood because "they had a vitality that the dead lacked", says Professor Harmes. King Charles II of England, for example, took medicine made from human skulls after suffering a seizure, and until 1909, some medical specialists used skulls to treat neurological conditions.
Returning to the subject of mummies, Marcus Harmes points out that eating “embalmed bodies seemed like an appropriate medicine for royalty, since doctors claimed that mumia was made from the pharaohs. Royalty ate royalty."
In the 19th century, no one was betting on this type of product anymore, although the remains from Ancient Egypt continued to arouse great interest in the Victorian society of England, which organized private night parties in which Egyptian corpses were unwrapped for entertainment.
"Napoleon's first expedition to Egypt in 1798 aroused European curiosity and allowed travelers going to Egypt at that time to bring back whole mummies bought on the streets of Egypt," says the professor at the Australian University of Southern Queensland.
The first events of this type had a certain appearance of “medical respectability”. In 1834, surgeon Thomas Pettigrew unwrapped a mummy at the Royal College of Surgeons. At that time, autopsies and operations were done in public, so there was nothing strange about the act.
But everything changed soon. The mummies no longer had any medicinal interest. Only the thrill of the unknown remained. “A dinner party host who could entertain his audience by stripping an embalmed body naked showed that he was rich enough to have a real mummy,” notes Harmes.
The thrill of seeing the dry flesh and bone beneath the bandages caused people to flock to these gatherings, whether in a private home or the headquarters of a scientific society. The festivities, however, ended at the beginning of the 20th century, when the inevitable destruction of the archaeological remains was seen as a regrettable act.
“Today, the black market of contraband antiquities, including mummies, generates an approximate value of 2,800 million euros. No serious archaeologist would unwrap a mummy and no doctor would suggest eating one. But the appeal of the remains of Ancient Egypt remains strong. They are still for sale, they are still exploited and they are still a commodity”, concludes the researcher.
