What was mummy medicine?

In ancient Mesopotamia, bitumen – a tar-like substance derived from petroleum – was used as a medicine, and in ancient Egypt a bitumen mixture was used to preserve bodies. The word 'mummy' comes from the Arabic 'mumiya', meaning bitumen. During the 12th century, medieval Europeans conflated these two pieces of information and the result was a foul-tasting and highly dangerous medicine – called 'mummy' – made of ground-up mummies.

When the supply of real mummies grew low, unscrupulous traders sold the corpses of slaves, suicides and criminals that had been left out in the sun so they looked like the genuine article. No one knew what diseases they may have died of. The medicinal use of mummy continued right up until the 19th century but, according to the 1905 edition of a German pharmaceutical text, by this time it consisted of 'resinous red-brown or brown-black pieces, mixed with some browned bone remnants and little pieces of linen'.

• Find out more about mummies in the timeline.

Top

Egyptian mummy from third century AD
(Science Photo Library)

Enlarge image