Mumia (medicinal powder)

Mumia (mumiya, mummia, mummy, pulvis mumiae, mummy powder) may refer to certain different medicinal powders, often represented as being of Egyptian origin (as mumia vera aegyptiaca), that were manufactured as a general remedy for various ailments. The first is a powder of bitumen (asphalt), referred to in the Arabic as mūmiyā and ancient Greek as pissasphaltus; the second is a powder of bitumen extracted from mummified remains that had been embalmed; and the third is a powder of the complete mummified human remains. The substitution of bitumen for mummified remains in Europe is attributed to a translation error that persisted for some centuries in the Medieval period.