( How Egyptians made mummies in 70 days or less.) According to Dannenfelt, a variety of 11th- and 12th-century translators incorrectly identified mumia as a substance exuded from preserved bodies in Egyptian tombs. Named after the local word for wax, “mum,” the substance was used for a variety of medical purposes and gained a reputation in the Arabic world as expensive, precious, and effective.īut when Western Europeans began encountering the Islamic world and translating its texts, a single mistranslation led to widespread confusion about the meaning of mumia.
Prized for its healing qualities, mumia was a substance found on a single Persian mountainside where it seeped from black-rock asphalt. The gory story hinges on one word: mumia. What started it all, writes historian Karl Dannenfelt, was a series of mistranslations and misunderstandings. The practice of consuming parts of ancient Egyptian mummies-and, later, embalmed corpses of all kinds-began in the 11 th century. Here’s the surprising reason that people once craved, and ate, mummies.
Feeling ill? In 15th-century Europe, the remedy for your headache, stomach ailment, or cancer might come with a side of Egyptian mummy.įor centuries, embalmed bodies were prized across the continent not for their historical value, but for their purported medical benefits.
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