a mummy is defined broadly as any
well-preserved cadaver and has a history
that extends to almost every continent
on the globe but when we're talking
monsters it's hard not to picture
anything that's not your Gauzy wrapped
upright human why did the Egyptian mummy
become the poster child for
mummification and how did an ancient
common funerary right turn into the
shambling silent linen wrapped Undead
corpse monster of popular culture
I'm Dr Emily zarka and this is monstrum
mummification was a sacred
transformative practice in ancient Egypt
directly linked to the gods Isis and
Osiris the ritual process made one's
Body and Soul fit for existence in the
afterlife part of the mummy's journey
into the stuff of Horrors began with the
early commodification of Egyptian human
remains and a little etymological
confusion
in early modern Asia and Greece
bidderman was a common medical remedy
the Persian word for bitumen became the
Latin mummia and later mummy in medieval
Europe and with the word mummy came the
mistaken belief that mummified human
corpses had the same medical properties
as bitumen thus creating a corpse trade
where human mummies were harvested for
use in Pharmaceuticals by the 16th
century the controversial trade became
increasingly popular as people use dead
human remains as medicine one English
Merchant's account of his handling of an
Egyptian mummy illustrates the kind of
treatment The Remains were subject to in
this bizarre trade industry
John Sanderson writes that he broke off
all parts of the bodies to see how the
flesh was turned to drug bringing home
more than 600 pounds of remains for
trade in London apothecaries some of
these specimens were wholly intact and
pharmacies would unwrap the bodies for
scientific study in 1763 John Hadley
unrolled a mummy in his home at the
behest of the British royal Society his
documentation helped lead to the first
systematic study of Egyptian mummy
necropsies by German physician Johann
Friedrich blumenbach in the late 1700s
for centuries ancient Egypt was a
subject of intrigue to Europeans and
Napoleon
1798-1801 invasion of Egypt brought back
an influx of pillaged artifacts and
first-hand accounts fueling Intrigue and
sparking a field of study egyptology
this marked the first grips of
egyptomania in the 19th century a term
used to summarize the robust popular
interest in ancient Egyptian culture
ancient Egypt continued as a fashionable
pursuit in the first decade of the 19th
century mostly in Britain the British
government built its own Egyptian Hall
which housed artifacts transferred to
Britain as part of Napoleon's surrender
the public even started to collect cheap
replicas of Egyptian Furniture China
patterns inspired by Egyptian designs
and other commercial items the 1820s
brought significant contributions to the
mummy monster as well former circus
strongman Giovanni belzoni's Recreation
of an Egyptian tomb in Piccadilly's
Egyptian Hall in 1821 Drew crowds as did
his inventive marketing techniques which
included public mummy autopsies he was
occasionally assisted by the surgeon and
antiquarian Thomas Pettigrew who would
become a famous egyptologist and
celebrity mummy autopsist the following
decade after his 1834 publication
history of Egyptian mummies considered
the foundational text in modern mummy's
studies in 1822 jean-francois
champollion translated hieroglyphics for
the first time using the Rosetta Stone
desire to better understand all aspects
of ancient Egyptian culture including
its dead grew attempts to identify the
name and social status of mummies became
increasingly important in 1825 Augustus
Bazi Granville performed the first
modern medical autopsy of a mummy The
Mummy continued to turn up in hospitals
artist Studios dissection theaters
universities and on the drawing room
tables of the upper class
unrolling or unwrapping mummies was both
an academic Pursuit and a form of
titillating entertainment
members of the public who could not
attend such a spectacle in person had
their appetites wet with detailed
reports of the experience in newspapers
when you consider how the removal of the
corpse from its intended resting place
turns it more object than person the
treatment of the mummified Corpse's
entertainment is significant in
understanding The Mummy they are made
uneasy representations of culture
history and personhood something fiction
responds to by making them monsters Jane
Lowden is the first author to write
these tensions into a fictional text her
1827 science fiction novel The Mummy or
a tale of the 22nd century is the story
of a reanimated Egyptian mummy in the
long bizarre tale The Mummy chiap serves
as a terrifying yet instructive Undead
character the book was incredibly
commercially popular and reprinted
multiple times the influence of
imperialism contributed to the
commodification and fetitization of the
Mummy in Britain Colonial territories
and others distant countries provided
museums and private collections with a
steady stream of exotic items including
bodies by mid-century the unwrapping of
a mummy had become both formulaic and
highly performative the body would be
laid surrounded by other Egyptian
artifacts and funerary images a lecture
about the practice of mummification in
Egyptian history would serve as a
Prelude to the real show the removal of
the textiles and other items on the body
some of these items an amulet a fragment
of bandage a piece of bone might be
passed around for the audience to touch
smell even taste in some cases
particularly at private unrolling
parties the guests may keep the objects
as souvenirs we see this trend
dramatized in mummy fiction of the time
in French author theophile gautier's
story The mummy's Foot a man buys a
mummified foot and later a woman hopping
on one foot arrives at his door she's an
ancient Egyptian princess searching for
her lost appendage apparently unable to
rest until her full body is restored
Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 short story some
words with a mummy sets the re-animated
Egyptian corpse in an all too familiar
place the white man's unwrapping Party
The Mummy at the center of the story is
brought back to life with an electrical
charge to the outright Terror of the
guests Louisa May Alcott is responsible
for what many consider to be the first
mummy's curse narrative lost in a
pyramid or the month curse penned in
1868 a mummified Egyptian sorceress
curses anyone who dares to disturb her
grave which of course two British men do
famous mummy fiction at the turn of the
century like Arthur Conan Doyle's the
Ring of Thoth and lot number 249 or Bram
Stoker's the jewel of seven stars helped
bolster the already mysterious and
mystical popular perception of the
Egyptian dead the rise of the film
industry continues to reinforce The
Mummy as foreign antagonist in the 1899
silent film robbing Cleopatra's tomb The
Mummy makes its first appearance on
screen a man chops a female mummy into
pieces in order to resurrect her in
1911's The Mummy a female mummy comes to
life after exposure to an electrical
current the Egyptian princess is
infatuated with the male protagonist and
aggressively pursues him reinforcing the
whole Egyptian mummy as fetish commodity
thing the 1920s popularized the idea of
the mummy's curse although 19th century
writers had already used this Trope now
the idea was supported by rumors of a
real curse the rumor of King
Tutankhamun's curse is notorious in part
because some people associated with the
excavation did die in mysterious ways
when archaeologist Howard Carter and his
Patron the fifth Earl of carnarvon
unburied the immense tomb of King Tut in
November 1922 it was an immediate Global
sensation sparking a new period of
egyptomania that would grow into a fever
pitch in 1923 when Lord carnevon fell
ill from an infected mosquito bite after
rumors circulated that he had stolen a
horde of valuable items from the Dig
even before the Lord's eventual death
from complications of the infection
stories circulated that he was suffering
a dire punishment for opening and
robbing the Egyptian king while not the
first rumored mummy's curse King tuts
was the curse with the most bodies
attributed to it at least 12 if you
include some unfortunate pets
real warnings do Adorn the walls of
Egyptian tombs meant to deter thieves
and keep the resting place of the Dead
sacred these hieroglyphics never
translate to vengeful Undead corpses in
fact an ancient funerary tradition the
bones of the deceased would be broken to
prevent them from rising and walking
among the living life after death was
one thing for the Egyptians disturbing
the living in this realm however was not
encouraged besides the fact that rumors
of mummy curses make for profitable
tabloid fodder an easy inspiration for
Gothic tales it's important to note that
during this period Egypt was actively
seeking independence from British
colonial rule painting the physical and
bodily remains of the ancient Egyptians
in a negative way attempted to discredit
and demonize the living Egyptian
population while the film can be read in
several ways it's hard to deny the
cultural impact of Universal Pictures
1932 The Mummy inspired in part by the
preceding decades events as well as 19th
century Gothic and horror Tales the film
tells the story of an undead Egyptian
priest desperate to secure the woman he
believes to be The Reincarnation of his
one-time lover
The Mummy is an interesting commentary
on the curse controversy around the
opening of King Tut's tomb one that
places science as a dangerous Pastime at
least when it comes to disturbing
corpses included with the remains of
Imhotep The Mummy at the center of the
film is a box emblazoned with a curse
archaeologist wendpel ignores a cold
scientist Professor Mueller's call for
caution declaring in the interest of
science even if I believe in the curse
I'd go on with my work for the museum
although it is the archaeologist's
assistant who inadvertently brings the
mummy back to life the commentary on the
selfish pursuit of scientific
advancement and the Folly of Youth
cannot be missed and in the end it is
Magic or rather the movie's warped
interpretation of ancient Egyptian
spiritual practices that defeats the
mummy but what really made the movie
iconic Boris karloff's bandage form
even though the titular mummy in the
movie only spends a few minutes on
screen wrapped in linen bandages
appearing in the rest of the film is a
modern Egyptian historian the compelling
image animated the mummy's public form
in a way unseen since those early 19th
century necropsies yet it wasn't until
the 1940s that the mummy became a true
horror monster where the Egyptian Undead
had before been more immoralistic
romantic or profound even if they were
placed in tension with Western
protagonists this decade of horror films
made them something to fear their Decay
was made more profound often with
rapping still in place and they ambled
about seemingly void of all emotions
other than anger and revenge we see this
trend take hold in Universal's second
foray into mummy horror the mummy's hand
unable to secure Karloff for an official
sequel to their 1932 film Universal gets
creative with the story and the
costuming with an aim to capitalize on
audience recognition they put the new
actor in a rubber mask made the mummy
mute and kept him wrapped in bandages
for most of the movie The Odd shambling
walk that the Egyptian mummy would
become known for the replacement actor
Tom Tyler had arthritis they gave the
mummy a new backstory to partially
explain these physical changes getting
rid of the articulate mummy and
replacing him with a silent Thief cursed
to be an uncontrollable Monster the
movie sequel the mummy's Tomb in 1942
reinforced the silent shambling version
of the mummy and Universal would double
down on the image in the 1950s but for
the first time throw in some humor as
well with Abbott and Costello Meet The
Mummy just like the Advent of egyptology
and the medical autopsy provided
inspiration for Tales some hundred years
before scientific advancements in the
1950s also found their way into mummy
myths the greater prevalence of X-rays
and Archeology and the use of Chemical
Testing meant that the Egyptian mummy
could be examined in a way previously
unheard of gone are the Spells or
galvanic batteries that bring the mummy
to life science's ability to solve the
mysteries of life and death become
Paramount not that such scientific
advances weren't again met with
trepidation
curse of the faceless man claims
radiation from x-ray exposure is what
revives The Mummy another Trend that
arises conflating The Mummy with other
Undead monsters in the pharaoh's curse
the disturbance of the remains of an
Egyptian priest leads to a character
being possessed by the soul of the Mummy
the character aided by a shape-shifting
Catwoman begins rapidly aging and starts
sucking people's blood before becoming
the mummy himself since then the mummy
has been a familiar horror figure in the
pages of fiction children's cartoons
movies across genres and on the front of
cereal boxes
they've been made frequent characters in
comic books ravenous zombie-esque flesh
eaters and Brendan Fraser's sonui
Nemesis the Egyptian mummies that stalk
the pages and screens of horror Science
Fiction and Fantasy are in a way
Justified for their behavior
rarely does a mummy animate without
outside provocation and many of those
bodies are exposed to modernity by the
mistakes or greed of the living
they threatened to literally consume or
kill those who see them as objects ready
for commercial consumption or scientific
investigation part of what makes the
Egyptian mummy horrifying or monstrous
outside of its intended context is a
lack of understanding associated with a
death practice few people are familiar
with and mistreatment of those bodies by
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dramatized
dramatized okay oh is it tote I did it
right
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