Mummies Eaten by Misreading

In the 12th century, Europeans began grinding up and eating Egyptian mummies, all because of a mistranslation. The Arabic word "mumia" originally meant bitumen, a tar-like substance believed to have healing powers, but Europeans confused it with the preserved bodies themselves. Soon, mummies were being traded, powdered, and consumed as "medicine" for everything from headaches to bleeding. For centuries, people literally ingested the dead, all thanks to one linguistic blunder.

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