Conversations with Mummies: New Light on the Lives of Ancient Egyptians - Tapa dura

A book that, using cutting-edge techniques and medical technology, sheds new light on how ancient Egyptians lived and died.

Recent studies using state-of-the-art technology have shed exciting new light on the lives of the ancient Egyptians. In this lavishly illustrated book, we are introduced to some of the most fascinating examples of the people who have been so miraculously preserved through centuries. Thanks to modern medical technology – X-rays, CT-scans and DNA tests – we can actually peer beneath the linen wrappings to reconstruct the lives of the individuals inside.

In a highly readable and absorbing text, we meet ancient people from every walk of life – from the royal mummies of the New Kingdom to ordinary artisans and labourers. For the first time, we can confirm how these Egyptians lived and how they died. Scientific study reveals the agonizing afflictions that spared no one, from middle class Djedmaatesankh to Ramesses II. Tissue sampling technology, which has uncovered the remains of ancient parasites whose descendents still infect millions today, has also made it possible for scientists to type King Tutankhamun’s blood and draw new conclusions about his relationship to the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaten. And modern forensic techniques make it possible to reconstruct the faces of the mummies, so that they almost seem to speak to us in an afterlife they never could have imagined.

Included will be a special feature on the mysterious art of mummification, plus a wealth of information on daily life in the time of the pharaohs, the journey to the afterlife, magic and medicine in ancient Egypt, and more – all illustrated with a host of photographs and diagrams.

Dr Rosalie David is a pioneer in the field of paleopathology and has been head of the Manchester Egyptian Mummy Project since it was founded in 1973.

Rick Archbold is the writer or co-writer of 18 books, including several to have come from his long collaboration with Dr Robert Ballard, the ocean explorer who discovered the wreck of the Titanic.