The medieval medicine called 'Mumia' likely originated from a mistranslation of Arabic that confused mummy remains with a similarly dark pitch material. Jeff Greenberg via Getty Images

Archaeologists have identified a previously undocumented ingredient used in ancient Egyptian mummifications —and a famous medieval medicine concocted from the mummies themselves. At Germany’s Marburg University, researchers pinpointed traces of aloe-associated plant material in a 2,700-year-old mummy skull , and a popular centuries’ old apothecary cure-all known as Mumia vera aegyptiaca .

There is no one way to make a mummy . Mummification methods have varied across the world for thousands of years, even within a single culture.…