In ancient times, the only source for a black mixture of organic substances was: Natural deposits around the Dead Sea. But when they discovered the old Egyptian mummies, they realized that they were coated with viscose black substances, because resins became blackened over time. Supposedly, an alternative source of a miracle drug was found, which was used by the Foral Police. Beginning in the 12th century, the Persian name of the substance began to be used to call the whole body, and the faculties of the bitumen were also attributed to the whole mummy. With this belief the marketing of merchants, in the Middle Ages mummies became coveted merchandise. They brought thousands of mummies into Europe to crush them and sell them powder. Whoever stays with the dust would acquire the mysterious power of mummies.

As mummies were getting harder and harder, prices soared. Some opportunists then began to produce mummies: they gave bitumen to bodies nobody wanted and let them dry in the sun to get mummy dust. In Europe, expensive placebo was consumed until the 18th century.

In the 19th century the elites of Victorian society gave another use to embalmed bodies: they organized parties to undress mummies. Some shows were held in houses, with few people; others in theatres, and the tickets ran out quickly.

In 1908, Egyptologist Margaret Murray removed the bandages from the mummies of the brothers Nekht-ankh and Khnumu-Nekht and analyzed the corpses before more than 500 people. I wanted to show that mummies were not magical, that they were unmystery corpses.

From the 16th century onwards, mummy powder was also used for pigment formation. When the English painter Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) learned about the main ingredient of the painting called momia-brown, he picked up all the bottles of that color he had in his studio and buried them with dignity, so that the profaned footprints could finally rest.