During Victorian era of the 1800s, Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt threw open Gates of Egypt’s history for the Europeans. In this period mummies became so sought-after that a monk famously explained “it would be hardly respectable, on one’s return from Egypt, to present oneself without a mummy in one hand and a crocodile in the other.” At that time, mummies were not accorded the respect that they deserved from the European elites and in fact, mummies could be purchased from street vendors (as shown in picture) to be used as the main event for parties and social gatherings that took place in 18th Century CE.
The elites of the era would often hold “Mummy Unwrapping Parties”, which, as the name suggests, had the main theme in which a Mummy would be unwrapped in front of a boisterous audience, cheering and applauding at the same time. During that period of time, the well-preserved remains of ancient Egyptians were routinely ground into a powder and consumed as a medicinal remedy. Mummies also used as a paint pigment called Mummy Brown. Paper, made from the mummy wrappings. Use in fertilizer, it was believed to be so effective that a single British company bought approximately 180,000 cat mummies weighing 19 tons. Mummies used as interior decoration, usually displayed in drawing rooms or bedrooms, but also in shops like a candy store who attracted customers with a mummy said to be the “Pharaoh’s daughter who discovered Moses in the bulrushes.” Mummy prop in the unrolling parties that were all the rage at the time. This trend started when an antiquity dealer unrolled a mummy in Piccadilly square to the amazement of the 2000 people who had come to watch. One of them was a famous surgeon, who began unrolling them in widely acclaimed ticketed events. The idea spread, and the unrolling private parties were born. People were interested in the mummy per se, but also in the talismans and other amulets that were found within the wrappings. With the passage of time, mummy used as stage props, famously used by a magician who rigged one up so it could perform and answer questions communicated through a phone-like device. In his shows, the mummy claimed to be a seer and prophet called Ra Ra Ra. A relic of Joan of Arc, discovered in a jar in 1867 CE, put in a museum, and only recently recognized as a mummy human rib. Mummies was commonly used as a fundraising tool by a Massachusetts hospital, who charged 0.25 cents per view. Indeed, mummies was so popular and pulverized, that it even instigated a counterfeit trade to meet demand, in which the flesh of beggars was passed off as that of ancient mummified Egyptians. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, so Egyptian mummies were exploited for more utilitarian purposes: huge numbers of human and animal mummies were ground up and shipped to Britain and Germany for use as fertilizer. Others were used to create mummy brown pigment or were stripped of their wrappings, which were subsequently exported to the US for use in paper-making industry. The author Mark Twain even reported that mummies were burnt in Egypt as locomotive fuel. As the 19th Century CE, advanced, mummies became prized objects of display, and scores of them were purchased by wealthy European and American private collectors as tourist souvenirs. For those who could not afford a whole mummy, disarticulated remains – such as a head, hand, or foot – could be purchased on the black market and smuggled back home.