Mummies Beyond Egypt

Egypt was not the only mummy-making culture. The Chinchorro people of Chile were mummifying their dead two thousand years before the Egyptians. Bog bodies in Northern Europe were naturally preserved by acidic peat. The Inca mummified royalty and displayed them at public ceremonies. What makes Egyptian mummies special is scale — millions over three millennia.

The mummy trade was a bizarre chapter. In medieval Europe, ground-up mummy was sold as medicine called mummia, prescribed for headaches to broken bones. Victorian Britons hosted mummy unwrapping parties as entertainment.