The Cocaine Mummies; Henut Taui’s Ancient Global Trade Network
Imagine the perfectly mummified Egyptian princess and priestess, Henut Taui, “The Lady of the Two Lands.” She was beautiful, powerful and gently alluring. Imagine you’re thrust back in time and immediately invited to her palace to enjoy the most luxuriating experiences of the day.
As you sit near her throne, you’re showered with new delights and substances, the likes of which you never imagined you might find in Ancient Egypt, like cocaine and tobacco… wait a minute.
While this fantasy defies the narrative of mainstream egyptology, there’s evidence it actually could have happened. That’s because Henut Taui and the controversial “cocaine mummies” revealed a vast global trade network that linked the new world with Ancient Egypt.
Although there is no physical evidence of tobacco or coca plants in ancient Egypt, Egyptian recreational drugs were plentiful.
The leafy plant Harmal can be converted to the chemical Harmine through a simple distillation process. The result is a potent antidepressant, which can also be used to treat inflammation and fever. Psilocybin mushrooms were used to acquaint avid aspirants with the Gods.
The most probable street drug of choice in Egypt was Blue Lotus. This lovely flower helped the shy become more talkative, relaxed and more blissful. It was enjoyed in tea and alcoholic spirits by every faction of society. Homer and Odysseus feared this plant because it removed the fear required for war.
When the King of Bavaria purchased Henut’s remains in the early 19th century, her sarcophagus was placed in a Munich museum and stood undisturbed for a century.
In 1992, toxicologist Svetlana Balabanova discovered traces of cocaine and nicotine in the hair of Priestess Henut Taui. Since these drugs were not found on the African continent until after Columbus voyaged the seas, archeologists and historians have wondered how this might have occurred.
Did the arrival of these drugs on Egyptian soil begin with a trade? Or was there another source for the drug already thriving in Egypt?
How Did Henut Taui Source Her Cocaine?
While traditional archeologists and historians fought the findings, the headlines were accurate: “Cocaine Found in Mummies!” So began the mystery.
Since nicotine was accessible on many continents and easily derived from plants other than tobacco (i.e., Withania Somnifer and Apium Somnifera), finding nicotine in a mummy’s hair was not unusual. Even cannabis had been part of Egypt’s cultural and religious practices for centuries prior to Henut’s reign. Cocaine was a different story.
It’s only recently that koʊˈkeɪn or كوكايين (cocaine in Egyptian) has become one of the most popular drugs in Egypt. Heroin, imported cannabis, and ecstasy have also become increasingly popular. But these trends developed over the last 30 years, not centuries.
To explain the tobacco nicotine and cocaine found in the hair and skin of mummies took some digging. Some thought that the rampant fraud found in the mummy business was the culprit. After all, if your mummies had cocaine in them, wouldn’t they be more valuable? Most certainly.
The History of Fake Mummies
In Victorian times (1837 to 1901), Egyptian artifacts were the rage. This is when recently deceased; mummified Egyptians were sometimes sold off as the real, ancient thing.
During this era it became fashionable to sell individual limbs from these corpses. As archeologists dug deeper, it was revealed that some of the handsomely preserved deceased were convicted and recently euthanized criminals. The demand for authentic mummy fingers and toes outstripped supply.
In the 16th century, armed with the belief that ground-mummy cured illnesses, people would eat the flesh of mummies in the form of a powder akin to bitumen, known as “Mummia.” While this traditionally Islamic and ancient Greek practice started with the consumption of bitumen, a type of asphalt, the public began to interpret “Mummia” as “a black, resinous medicine scraped out from embalmed Egyptian mummies.” This is when real mummies were seared and then powdered for mass consumption. Crazy, right?
While the mummy-powder often made people ill, it was assumed that the negative aspects exiting the body caused the immediate sicknesses. Because of the insanity, hype and related fear, expensive “Mummia” bitumen was sold in apothecaries around the world.
It’s from this lineage of events that fraudsters may have thought to inject cocaine in the hair of ancient and recently deceased mummies. Their hope may have been to inspire a lucrative market for “cocaine mummies.”
While this sounds like a reasonable explanation and correct to some extent, the only logical theory that solves this question is that sea-based trade routes between The Americas and Africa existed long before Columbus.
Cultural and Academic Snobbery
Some archaeologists and cultural snobs believed the mummies Balabanova tested were faked, but subsequent investigations of her “Munich Mummies” proved the mummies were authentic.
Balabanova courtesy beyondsciencetv.com
Balabanova went on to test 134 additional mummies and bodies, including ones from Sudan, China, and Austria. One-third of them tested positive for nicotine and cocaine.
Even the mummy of Ramses was examined. Not only were tobacco and cocaine found in his body, but the nicotine was 35x that of an average cigarette smoker.
This means that the once elusive recipe for embalming included not just nicotine, but nicotine from South American tobacco. The idea that Egyptians could trade with an undiscovered continent thousands of miles away was almost inconceivable, but it’s true.
While some archeology purists claimed that all Balabanova’s and subsequent tests were contaminated, the evidence is conclusive. There was no contamination. There was an ancient international drug trade connecting South and North America with Africa and Asia. There is no other explanation.
Proven Ancient Trade Routes
It’s already been proven that American plants landed on the other side of the Pacific Ocean long before Columbus, including sweet potatoes and peanuts.
There’s a temple in Southern India with a sculpture of a goddess holding an ear of corn. This would suggest the existence of a trade route extending from The Americas to India. So then, why couldn’t tobacco and coca reach Egypt in the same manner? If not by sea, these crops could also have arrived through a land-based trade route.
When you add to the story the recent discovery of silk in the hair of a Luxor mummy, you begin to see that Egypt engaged with China by sea. At the time, silk was only made in China.
Filling In Historical Gaps
The majority of our histories have been lost. Many civilizations and inventions have disappeared without a trace. There are multitudes of gaps. It’s only cultural arrogance that fills the gaps with certainty.
Why do modern scholars defend the notion that the only established trade routes were created in the 18th century? Over-confidence and arrogance.
In many things, what has been proven might easily be seen as uncertain. To deeply explore our past and all possibilities, requires an open mind and the release of cultural identities, career-induced masks and old, societal stories.
If we can unshackle the agendas from our determined minds, we can further our understanding of all the mysteries in the Universe, including Atlantis, UFOs and the ability to travel time. It’s all within our minds and within our reach.
About the Author
Did Giant Exist? The Real History of Giants Living on Earth
Humans have long expressed a fascination and fear around the question, “Were there giants on Earth?” Whether in legends or life, giants have been worshipped, reviled, ostracized, and celebrated. Stories of towering beings appear in cultures around the world — from mythology to religious texts — and continue to capture our collective imagination.
While the existence of dinosaurs is backed by extensive scientific evidence, and millions journey to witness massive ancient monuments, the idea that actual human giants — beings over 20 feet tall — once roamed the earth is not supported by any credible scientific evidence. Despite popular claims and persistent folklore, no verified remains, fossils, or historical records confirm the existence of such beings.
That said, the enduring belief in giants raises a compelling question: What were people seeing — or experiencing — that led to these widespread legends? Though giants may not have existed in the literal sense, their presence in stories, symbols, and artifacts points to deeper cultural, psychological, and perhaps even natural explanations worth exploring.
Proof of Giants Throughout History
The concept of giants has been a part of human folklore and mythological narratives for millennia, resonating through various cultures and continents, from the Americas to Africa and from ancient Israel to the Norse. In the Americas, both North and South have indigenous legends speaking of giant beings, some even overlapping with interpretations of megafauna like mastodons that once roamed the land. The Native American tales often include references to a race of giants, which could be considered a cultural memory of these large prehistoric animals.
In Biblical Text
The biblical references, such as those found in the Book of Genesis, speak of the Nephilim, who are often portrayed as giants or mighty warriors and described as the offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”. Nephilim have been subject to much interpretation, with some considering them metaphorical giants while others believe in their literal existence. David’s battle against Goliath is one of the most iconic stories of a human overcoming a giant from the Bible.
Around the World
From Africa to Germany, as well as in the Norse traditions of Europe, tales of giants are common, often tied to the creation myths and early histories of peoples. Native American folklore across various tribes frequently speaks of giants, who are depicted as powerful spirits or ancestors that roamed the land, some of whom interacted with the people, teaching or challenging them. In Egyptian mythology, the giant Geb, the god of the Earth, was often depicted as a colossal figure whose laughter was believed to cause earthquakes and whose body formed the hills and valleys of ancient Egypt. Perhaps no culture is more richly intertwined with tales of giants than that of the Greeks, from the gods of Olympus to their offspring, such as the Cyclops.
Giant Skeletal Remains
The Smithsonian Institution in the United States, along with other scientific bodies, has been involved in the study of large humanoid bones that have been discovered, often shrouded in mystery and sometimes labeled as hoaxes. Newspaper articles from the 19th and early 20th centuries in New York and California frequently featured stories of giant skeletons unearthed, fueling speculation about ancient giants on Earth.
Extraterrestrial Theories
Theories about ancient aliens, as seen in various full episodes of Beyond Belief or popular documentaries, sometimes suggest that these giants were extraterrestrial visitors, while others propose that they were simply larger human beings that lived in ancient times.
Skepticism remains high, with many of these stories considered hoaxes or misinterpretations of archaeological findings. The search for evidence continues, with enthusiasts combing through books, historical newspaper articles, and religious texts like the Christian Bible and the Book of Enoch for clues.
Scientific Constraints: The Square-Cube Law
Despite the richness of folklore and speculation, biology and physics place hard limits on the plausibility of giants as described in myths. One critical constraint is the square-cube law — a principle in biomechanics that explains why extremely large human-like beings could not physically exist. As a creature’s size increases, its volume (and therefore its mass) grows faster than its surface area. For humans, this means that as height increases, the weight increases exponentially — but the strength of bones and muscles, which depends on cross-sectional area, does not scale at the same rate.
In practical terms, a human scaled up to 20 feet tall would weigh many times more than their skeleton and muscles could support. The heart and circulatory system would also be unable to efficiently deliver oxygen through such a large body. This fundamental law of nature makes the existence of towering humanoid giants biologically unfeasible — regardless of stories or legends to the contrary.
Modern Giants, A Brief Look at Gigantism
Merriam-Webster defines a giant as being a “legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength,” as well as “a living being of great size.” In physical terms, a giant is a person over seven feet tall with a condition known as “gigantism.” The tallest person documented in modern history was Robert Wadlow (1918-1940), known as the “Alton Giant,” or the “Giant of Illinois,” who stood 8 feet 11 inches tall.
Robert Wadlow, the Alton Giant
Wadlow intended to study law but lived as a celebrity after traveling with the Ringling Brothers Circus and as a spokesman for giant-sized shoes. He died at a young age, an all too common end for those with gigantism — their weight and size put constant strain on the heart and skeletal system.
Today, genetic giants are gaining acceptance because, overall, humans have evolved into a taller species. According to Max Roser, an economist studying global standards of living conditions, between 1810 and 1980, European male height grew from an average of 160 centimeters to 185 centimeters. But despite this acceptance, giants can still find life in a normal-sized world stressful and lonely and, like Wadlow, are treated as an oddity. This contradiction doesn’t exactly mirror how giant races have been regarded throughout history.
Were there Giants on Earth?
In the realm of archaeology and anthropology, there is no credible evidence to suggest that a race of giants once roamed the Earth. Large bones often claimed to be from giant humans are usually identified as remains of prehistoric animals such as dinosaurs or mammoths.
However, tales of giant humans across the earth, whether rooted in mythology, religion, or speculative history, continue to intrigue us. From America to Africa, and from the annals of the Smithsonian to the pages of the Christian Bible, the concept of giants weaves a complex tapestry of intrigue, belief, and scholarly curiosity. Whether these stories emerge from real giants or are simply metaphors within cultural histories, they remain a compelling part of our collective narrative.
