Henut Taui, known as the Lady of Two Lands, was mummified 3,000 years ago and locked away in a desert tomb in ancient Egypt. In 1992, samples of their remains were examined in a Munich laboratory. Curiously, traces of tobacco and cocaine were present in these samples.
After the decline of ancient civilizations, no plants were found in the area for at least 1,000 years. Egyptologists and other experts understandably view these finds with great skepticism. The Cocaine Mummy Mystery examines these puzzling findings and searches for possible explanations.
When the famous toxicologist Dr. Svetla Balabanova tested the remains for the first time, she was also surprised by the results. Has the sample been tampered with due to accidental contamination? Is there any malfunction in your lab equipment? Or maybe the mummy itself is deceiving? To address some of these concerns, she performed additional tests on the mummy’s hair shafts, but got the same results. This irrefutably confirmed their first discovery. Meanwhile, Dr. Michel Lescott also found traces of tobacco in the mummified remains of Ramses II at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, more than 500 miles away.
This film follows an in-depth investigation following the release of these findings. It’s undeniably a fascinating and multifaceted journey across multiple continents.
Along the way, the filmmakers explore the rituals and superstitions of the ancient Egyptians and the process of mummifying their remains. Viewers can also learn about the long-term thriving underground industry involved in the trade in mummified limbs and other body parts.
Drawing on the expertise of anthropologists and historians at the world’s leading universities, the cocaine mummification mystery obsesses over details—from the trade policies of the ancient Egyptians to their belief that many diseases could be cured by ingesting the flesh of the dead. Every paragraph is mesmerizing.
Neither Dr. Balabanova nor Dr. Lescot knew that their discovery had the potential to shake up and redefine history. The film shows how long the scientific community struggles to scrutinize each new piece of evidence before confirming or denying its inclusion in the official narrative.
