Throughout human history, people have maintained beliefs and practices that were
meant to sustain health even though they seem, to the modern inquirer, to be quite
ridiculous. A common source of medicinal material throughout history (even as recent
as the 20th century in some cases) was human remains, either long dead or freshly
deceased. One of these human-based ‘panaceas’ was mumia, the pulverized or
tinctured extract of human corpses—mummies—mostly from Egypt. A variety of
products fell under this designation, and could be found in wide temporal and
geographical range. The paper will address the procurement, manufacture, sale, and
distribution of this macabre cure in order to argue that its ubiquitous nature led to its
eventual fall from popularity.
