Why did people think cannibalism was good for their health? The answer offers a glimpse into the zaniest crannies of European history, at a time when Europeans were obsessed with Egyptian mummies.
Driven first by the belief that ground-up and tinctured human remains could cure anything from bubonic plague to a headache, and then by the macabre ideas Victorian people had about after-dinner entertainment, the bandaged corpses of ancient Egyptians were the subject of fascination from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
Mummy mania
Faith that mummies could cure illness drove people for centuries to ingest something that tasted awful(opens in new tab).
Mumia, the product created from mummified bodies, was a medicinal substance consumed for centuries(opens in new tab) by rich and poor, available in apothecaries’ shops(opens in new tab), and created from the remains of mummies brought from Egyptian tombs back to Europe.
