After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Episode: The Victorians’ Dark Obsession with Ancient Egypt

Date: January 19, 2026
Guests: Dr. Jay Sullivan, historian and author of Egyptian Gothic 1884–1920
Hosts: Anthony Delaney, Maddy Pelling

Overview

This episode delves into the Victorian era’s fervent fascination with ancient Egypt—from “mummy unwrapping” parties in candlelit drawing rooms, to strange fusions of archaeology and occultism, and the disturbing intersections of colonial power, exploitation, and Orientalist fantasy. Historian Dr. Jay Sullivan joins the hosts to explore the origins of this obsession, its evolution in literature and popular culture, and its sinister legacies in both historical practice and the modern imagination.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Roots of Egyptomania: Pre-Victorian to Victorian Era

• The Victorian obsession with Egypt is foreshadowed by earlier, Georgian-era fascinations, some of them surprisingly dark.
  • Medicinal Consumption of Mummies:
    • "People were also eating mummies. They were taking it for medicine. Apparently it was ground up into powder and mixed with chocolate or alcohol, both of which I think absolutely rancid.”
      — Dr. Jay Sullivan [03:12]
  • Early obsessions stemmed from Biblical connections and a desire to verify religious stories via archaeology.
• Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt spurs a shift from mystical wonder to scientific endeavor.
  • “The more modern Egyptian mania as we would think of it, it's sparked by Napoleon's invasion of Egypt…They really push our knowledge of Egypt forward and it comes from there, really.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [04:18]
• 19th-century travelogues and exhibitions made Egypt accessible to the British public.
  • “People go and paint there. They would bring back small mementos from their travels. It was the kind of thing that was really popular to read.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [05:22]

2. Decoding and Appropriating Egypt: Hieroglyphics and Imperial Power

• British (and French) attempts to “know” and control Egypt were deeply intertwined with imperial ambitions.
• The Rosetta Stone’s translation unlocked the reading of hieroglyphs, intensifying the Victorians’ sense of closeness to ancient Egypt.
  • “It wasn't translated until around 1860 and the Rosetta stone was the cause of that…before that, they were just pretty pictures.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [07:27]
• Egyptian aesthetics became part of Britain’s imperial self-image, as seen at the 1854 Great Exhibition.
  • “There's this feeling that it's a great empire in the same way that the British Empire is great…they're all about comparing imperial might and projecting that on…”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [09:34]

3. The Allure of Mystery and the Occult

• Egypt represented not only history but also mystery, magic, and the occult for the Victorians.
  • “The Victorians take up ancient Egypt as this quite alien othered thing that isn't… it's quite mysterious to them, it's quite unexplainable and it has that sensory element.”
    — Host [10:24]
• The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn epitomized this blend of esoteric magic and Egyptomania.
  • “They create this magical cult and there's headdresses, there's robes…There's naturally a whole load of sex magic because what else you can do?”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [11:07]
  • “It actually culminates…with Aleister Crowley trying to invade their headquarters in London…and he like scuttles off. So it is big student infighting drama. I love it.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [11:58]

4. Mummies, Loot, and the Black Market

• The British occupation of Egypt (from 1882) accelerates the flow of artifacts (and body parts) back to Britain, despite legal bans.
  • “Instead of being able to take a whole mummy home with you…now people start breaking off bits. This is when we have a huge export in hands and feet and heads as well.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [13:37]
• Mummies are simultaneously sacred relics and commodified objects—this ambiguity fuels both Gothic horror and colonial guilt.

5. The “Egyptian Gothic” and Mummy Mania in Literature

• Dr. Sullivan defines “Egyptianized Gothic” as a genre: “This is very much a white male creation of what Egypt is…There are no actual, well rounded Egyptian characters here.”
  — Dr. Jay Sullivan [18:10]
• ‘Mummy fiction’ flourished from the 1880s to WWI, even outselling Dracula at times.
  • “More popular than Dracula. There's a text called The Beetle which outsold Dracula… it's got a shape shifting beetle creature that terrifies a politician… Highly recommend.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [18:36]
• Themes of exotic sensation, body horror, vengeance, and even “mummy romance” pervade—often with unsettling sexual undertones.
  • “An Egyptologist will go into a tomb, he'll discover a mummy…conveniently she'll be perfectly preserved. Always a woman, always a woman…as soon as they reach out to touch or to kiss or to possess, they always crumble into dust. And I have always read this as a kind of an escape.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [20:34]
• These stories mapped Victorian anxieties about sexuality, race, and empire—projecting “safe” fantasies onto a foreign past.

6. Desecration as Entertainment: The Mummy Unwrapping Party

• “Mummy unwrapping parties” were both social spectacles and pseudo-scientific events.
  • “You bring a mummy over and some mates and crack open at it…There would be trinkets, like gems and jewelry…they would hand them out amongst guests, kind of like little party bags…”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [28:22]
• Public and private events alike blurred the lines between scientific inquiry and voyeuristic desecration.
• The practice often destroyed the mummies and “artifacts” were distributed or discarded.
  • “The body would have been completely destroyed…So the damage to the mummy at the end of it was no longer usable. You couldn't put it on display. So often these were discarded.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [31:41]
• Some pushback emerged, but cognitive dissonance allowed participants to critique the practice even as they joined in.
  • “He both attended mummy unwrapping parties and wrote a four part series…saying the behavior...was absolutely disgusting, but at the same time…he was picking up bandages and rolling them in his hands…”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [30:38]

7. The Legacy: From Victorian Fiction to Modern Pop Culture

• The Egyptian Gothic falls out of favor after 1922 and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, which remained in Egypt and whose press coverage shifted the terms of public fascination.
  • “When Tutankhamun's tomb is discovered...the objects that are found are kept within Egypt…and the genre does slowly peter out.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [36:40]
• The idea of the “mummy's curse” emerges as a Victorian invention and persists in the 20th century as a fantasy with roots in colonial unease.
  • “The idea of the curse that steps off the page into real life is also arguably a Victorian invention as well.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [38:04]
  • Entertaining story of a “cursed” British colonizer killed by an elephant, his body never recovered (39:13–39:29).
• Modern mummy films, such as the 1999 The Mummy, directly inherit these stories and themes.
  • “The 1930s Mummy borrows so heavily from the Egyptian Gothic genre…there is definitely a through line there, which is nice. It's nice that it continues on.”
    — Dr. Jay Sullivan [41:33]
• Persistent popular fascination is partly due to Victorian sensationalism and its ongoing echoes in films, books, and even cartoons (Scooby Doo mentioned).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This isn't history. Its desecration masked as entertainment. The sacred dead reduced to spectacle.”
  — Podcast Host [00:39]
• “The most famous ancient Egyptian one is a laundry list of complaints. It's like a legal letter before action. So you could read these things…through that day to day minutiae...feel that feeling of closeness.”
  — Dr. Jay Sullivan [08:22]
• “There's no Egyptians writing this at the time…There are no actual, well rounded Egyptian characters here to add some balance.”
  — Dr. Jay Sullivan [18:10]
• On “mummy romance”:
  “You’ll be blissfully relieved…there's never a moment of consummation. As soon as they reach out to touch or to kiss or to possess, they always crumble into dust...they would rather be completely removed from existence than dabble in this romance.” — Dr. Jay Sullivan [20:34]
• “With mummies, there's a real blurring between what is subject and what is object, what is artifact and is body.” — Dr. Jay Sullivan [14:11]
• “It is both a social activity and a scientific activity...Instead of your murder mystery party, you bring a mummy over and some mates and crack open at it.” — Dr. Jay Sullivan [28:22]
• “There's a real desire to explore what is happening around them. This kind of rising up of supposedly governed forces...the idea of the past essentially coming back to bite you in the ass.” — Dr. Jay Sullivan [26:32]
• “If you're going to pick up one [book] from the end, that is the most batshit one of all. And I highly recommend.” (on The Beetle)
  — Dr. Jay Sullivan [43:25]

Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:12] | Origins and early dark fascinations (mummy medicine)
• [04:18–06:51] | Rise of Egyptomania: Napoleon, travelogues, exhibitions, print culture
• [07:27–09:07] | Deciphering hieroglyphs, the Rosetta Stone, British imperial display
• [10:24–12:40] | The occult: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, magic, and the British Museum
• [13:07–14:44] | Colonial appropriation, artifact bans, the black market in body parts
• [17:35–21:58] | Mummies and memory in literature: the Egyptian Gothic, “mummy romance,” and imperial anxieties
• [28:22–32:46] | Mummy unwrapping parties: mechanics, destruction, ethics
• [36:40–39:29] | Decline of the Egyptian Gothic: Tutankhamun, curses, changing cultural tides
• [41:33–43:50] | Modern mummy movies as legacy; persistent pop fascination

Conclusion

The podcast offers a lively, unsettling, and sometimes darkly humorous exploration of the intersection between Victorian imperial anxieties and the cultural legacy of ancient Egypt. Through both scholarly analysis and anecdotes, Dr. Sullivan and the hosts chart how historical events, literature, magical societies, and acts of desecration fused into a uniquely Gothic popular obsession—one whose distortions and fascinations still inform how we imagine Egypt today.