Synopses & Reviews
Egyptian mummies have always aroused popular and scientific interest; however, most modern studies, although significantly increased in number and range, have been published in specialist journals. Now, this unique book, written by a long-established team of scientists based at the University of Manchester (England), brings this exciting, cross-disciplinary area of research to a wider readership. Its main aim is to show how this team's multidisciplinary, investigative methods and the unique resource of the Egyptian Mummy Tissue Bank are being used for the new major international investigations of disease evolution and ancient Egyptian pharmacy and pharmacology. It also assesses the current status of palaeopathology and ancient DNA research, and treatments available for conserving mummified remains. Descriptions of the historical development of Egyptian mummifications and medicine and detailed references to previous scientific investigations provide the context for firsthand accounts of cutting-edge research by prominent specialists in this field, demonstrating how these techniques can contribute to a new perspective on Egyptology.
Synopsis
In this volume the members of the Manchester Mummy project explain their work in a manner accessible to those working outside the narrow field of biomedical Egyptology, synthesising the results of the application of modern scientific techniques to the study of mummies. The book is still a challenging read, but hugely rewarding, as the authors show just how much we can now determine about the lifestyle, diet, health, and deaths of individual Egyptians from their mummified bodies. Chapters also set out what mummies can tell us about Egyptian medical practices and their efficacy as well as ancient Egyptian use of intoxicants, where it looks as though much of the meagre evidence may tell us more about the habits of past archaeologists and owners of mummies than the Egyptians
Synopsis
A team of long-established scientists describe how their cutting-edge investigative methods and the unique resource of the Egyptian Mummy Tissue Bank are being used for the new major international investigations of disease evolution and ancient Egyptian pharmacy and pharmacology. Their research gives us new insight into ancient Egypt.