NPR reported that archaeologists are using chemistry to learn more about mummies, in an article by Pien Huang published November 2, 2026. The NPR article concerns ancient Egyptian mummy remains, which its summary says were once marketed as medicine.
According to NPR's summary, research finds that "at least some of these products came from real human remains." In plain terms, the summary reports that some substances sold as medicine were derived from human bodies.
NPR also reported that mummy materials keep bodies preserved for millennia. The summary presents this point separately from the finding about the products, and it does not explain how the materials produce that effect.
The summary does not name the researchers or the institutions involved, and it does not describe the chemical methods used. It also does not say whether every product sold as mummy medicine contained human material, since it states only that at least some did.
The two points in the summary address different questions: the origin of materials sold as medicine, and how long mummy materials keep bodies intact. The headline's phrase "learn more about mummies" describes the article's general subject rather than a specific result.
No other outlet's report on this research was available for this account, so the findings are presented as NPR described them. This account is based on the headline and summary of the NPR article, and the full text was not reviewed.
Sources: NPR: Archaeologists are using chemistry to learn more about mummies.