Beginning in the 12th century, Arab physicians began to prescribe their patients a most unorthodox remedy: the ground remains of mummies procured from Egyptian tombs.
Mummy powder proved so profitable that soon after its introduction, Egyptian tombs were ransacked not only for the riches they might contain, but also for bodies that might be processed into the expensive folk medicine. It wasn’t long before the practice of applying mummy powder was incorporated into medieval Europe’s catalog of dubious medical practices. By the 16th century, the product had become so commonplace in both Europe and the Middle East that the once seemingly endless supply of authentic, mummified Egyptian cadavers quite literally dried up.
Mummy powder, however, was not the only everyday use of the Egyptian dead that arose before the dawn of modern archaeological preservation. In the 16th and 17th centuries, pulverized mummy was the key ingredient in a popular shade of brown artist’s pigment, and preserved human and animal remains of Egyptian origin were used in the production of this “mummy brown” paint until the early 20th century.
Whether this statement was merely jest on the part of the American literary icon, well known for his sense of humor, has been the subject of debate ever since it was published. What is known, however, is that the supply of authentic Egyptian corpses by the beginning of the 1800s was so small only that upper crust Europeans could afford to purchase one whole. In the wake of Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt, it became vogue amongst the aristocracy to hold “unwrapping parties,” where carefully preserved corpses would be haphazardly stripped of their bandages, so that revelers could gaze upon the millennia-old face concealed beneath them. Small burial ornaments concealed in the linens would then be dispensed to partygoers as souvenirs, while exposure to air caused the delicate bodies to crumble into dust, never to be seen again.
A Greek transcription of the Hebrew molech, meaning king, Moloch was one of the prominent pagan deities of ancient Mesopotamia. As many Israelites burned their children alive in tribute to this idol, modern thinking holds that the name in fact derives from the Punic root MLK, meaning offering or sacrifice, and suggests that Moloch refers not to the name of a god but to a particular form of ritual sacrifice.
In 605 BC, Babylon rose again and King Nebuchadnezzar repeatedly banished the Jews to disparate parts of the Arabian subcontinent several times – not only leading to widespread Jewish Diaspora, but ensuring that many of the deities of ancient Mesopotamia would be recorded in the Old Testament as well.
Idolatry was a then commonplace practice throughout ancient Canaan – popular gods included the fishtailed Dagon of the Philistines, the “he-goat” Asima of the Emathites and the fly Beezlebub worshipped in the kingdom of Accaron. The deity with the grisly repute of all, however, was Moloch, whose cult first arose in the city of Ammon in what is now modern day Jordan.
Several Biblical accounts record the followers’ belief that by appeasing Moloch with the lives of burnt children and animals, he would renew the vitality of their king, who in turn could then reap a plentiful harvest. That, however, is not to say that it was a tidy affair – on days of sacrifice, drums and cymbals had to be played at maximum ferocity to drown out screams of burning children.
In the 11th century, famed Talmudic commentator and rabbi Rashi stated that sacrifices to Moloch had taken place in a large brass cauldron that would have been heated to cook its victims alive. Later historians embellished this detail have the oven become a bull-shaped effigy of Moloch himself — recalling the form of the golden calf fashioned by Aaron to appease the Hebrews during Moses’ tribulation on Mount Sinai.
Interestingly enough, one of laws issued by Moses upon his return from the mountaintop, as stated in Leviticus 18:21, was “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God.” To this day it remains unclear whether this was a preventative measure to prevent Moses’ flock from straying or whether certain contingents of Jews had already given themselves over to Moloch worship.
Modern archaeologists generally hold that the Canaanite god Moloch had analogs in the Greek titan Cronus and Carthaginian’s Ba’al Hammon – two pagan deities both reputed to have required the ritual sacrifice of children by flame. In fact, some of the first clues to historical Moloch worship appeared after the excavation of mass grave in Carthage in 1921, which produced hundreds of child and animal sacrifices, comingled with stones inscribed MLK.
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Today standing guard on the Giza pyramid complex’s eastern face, the Great Sphinx in fact predates Ancient Egypt’s most famed architectural achievements by at least 500 years. Modern archaeology tells us that the Sphinx was built during Old Kingdom Egypt’s fourth dynasty, sometime between 2723 and 2563 BC - making it the world’s oldest known monumental edifice. 
German traveler Johannes Helferich’s take was altogether different when he published a drawing in an account of his Oriental travels in 1579; here the Sphinx was definitively female, with its distinctive headdress portrayed as shoulder-length, harshly cropped hair. (Helferich’s travelogue also recounts, interestingly enough, that Egyptian priests showed him a secret tunnel within the statue in which they could hide and make it appear that the Sphinx was talking.)
The first true approximation the monument’s actual appearance comes from Richard Pococke’s Travels, published in 1743 – though he did take the liberty of penciling in the face’s nonexistent proboscis (believed to have, in fact, been destroyed at least a century before the publication of Thevet’s account). By the time Napoleon paid a visit to Giza in 1798, most of educated Europe knew the Sphinx’s true face – though its body would remain buried in the desert’s dunes, until one of many excavation attempts finally succeeded in 1936.
Built on the bank of the Nile along the northern edge of the city of Luxor, the Temple of Karnak was dedicated to the worship of one of Egypt’s oldest and most storied deities: Amun-Re. Though initially worshipped as the primeval god of the wind and air, Amun-Re increased in favor from the 11th Dynasty onwards, eventually ascending to the forefront of the Egyptian pantheon and becoming endowed with the attributes of an all-powerful sun god.
The six gateways eventually led onto Karnak’s inner temple – the highest and darkest point in the entire complex. Even today, it is remains clad in the pink granite grafted onto the original structure around 330 BC by Philip Arridaeus, brother of Alexander the Great. The inner sanctum was focused on a stone dais that once bore ceremonial boat dedicated to Amun-Re, as well a large statue of the god – the latter of which occupied the center of temple life for the high priest of the temple and the Egyptian king alike. On feast days, the statue be hoisted onto the ceremonial boat, and then carried around the temple perimeter. Natives of the surrounding towns and encampments, believing the statue to be gifted with powers of prophecy, would shout questions at the procession as it passed. As the boat rounded the temple, it would rock from side to side; a tilt to one side or another was seen by temple devotees as being indicative as a yes or no answer to their queries.
When we face occasions of hardship or uncertainty we may rely on internal sources of strength but often we also seek comfort in external representations of what may fortify us. Throughout the history of human experience, attention has been given to tokens, amulets, or charms that could offer some kind of consolation or protection by the power inherent in them. In ancient Egypt amulets were worn on jewelry to symbolize certain attributes that the wearer, by holding them close to him/her, could attain.
In the case of the scarab, (the beetle that emerges from its egg stage in animal dung, seemingly self-generating) the scarab amulet was an object of renewal and regeneration to the Egyptian culture so enthralled by the after-life. Wearers would hold the scarab dear as a protective charm that could ensure their ability to successfully pass into the afterlife. Other symbols such as the Ankh of Life, representing the force of life, or the Eye of Horus, which protected in life and in the afterlife, were also preferred talismans.
Where the word ‘amulet’ entered Western vocabulary is disputed but it has a long history. One etymology claims for it a Latin origin, ‘amuletum’, and is first documented by Pliny in the first century C.E. Another hypothesis of derivation is that it came from the Arabic word ‘hamalet’, meaning ‘pendant’ or the Arabic ‘hamala’, meaning to ‘carry away, remove, or destroy’. Whatever the origins of the word, the existence of charms and amulets persists even though societies continually evolve the objects in which they invest power, status, and protection. 
