Online Activities: Ancient Egypt
This bibliography focuses on books that might be helpful or interesting to folks studying mummification. We have tired to limit this listing chiefly to fairly recent books that are available in bookstores and libraries. The good news about books on mummification is that there are lots of beautiful news books coming off the presses in Egypt, The United Kingdom, Europe, and the U.S.A. The bad news is that they are almost all expensive.
Part I: Egyptian Mummies
The Royal Mummies: Catalogue General des Antiquities Egyptiennes du Musee du Caire, Nos. 61051-61100
By G. Elliot Smith
This is the original publication of information about the Royal Mummies, based on the studies done both as the bodies were unwrapped, and at subsequent observations. Most recent publications are based at least in part upon this book.
Le Caire: Imprimerie de l'institut francais d'archaeologie orientale, 1912.
Egyptian Mummies
By G. Elliot Smith and Warren R. Dawson
This re-issue is a fine book to have. Elliot smith did much of the original investigation into the Royal Mummies, and had unwrapped a great many non-royals, as well. The book is illustrated with fine engravings based on the photographs in The Catalogue General, and some other early photos. There is a great deal of information here, and many subsequent books have been based on Elliot Smith's findings, and been much more dogmatic than he ever was. He was quite aware of how much he did not know, and how much work was yet to be done.
London: Kegan Paul International,1991. First published 1924. 190 pages, indexed.
Egyptian Mummies
By Barbara Adams
This little book is one of the excellent Shire Egyptology series. Within the limitations of space, it's a fine book, and well-illustrated in black and white.
Aylesbury, UK : Shire, 1984. 64 pages with index.
Egyptian Mummies
By Carol Andrews
One of the British Museum series, illustrated with colour and black and white images of the BM's collection. Clear and thorough text within the limitations of space.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984. 72 pages with index.
Egyptian Mummies
By Bob Brier
Brier tells the tales of the discoveries and losses of the various royal mummies. He examines the evidence for methods of mummification in Ancient Egyptian sources, and from Heroditus, as well as the evidence from modern science. Very thorough. The illustrations are interesting, with some very hard to get images, though the reproductions are not always high quality. Brier is the man who actually carried out a formal mummification in 1994. In my opinion, this is his best book.
New York: William Morrow and Company, 1994. 325 pages, index.
Mummies of the Pharaohs: Modern Medical Investigations
By Maurice Bucaille
Bucaille was part of the team that studied the body of Ramesses II when he was flown to Paris. Bucaille's book contains detailed information not usually found in other books about the wounds and damage to the royal mummies. Twenty-five pages are taken up with consideration of whether or not Moses met Ramesses II. Poor quality paper prevented the photos from being as clear as one might wish, but there are images here you will see no where else.
(English edition) New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. 236 pages with index.
Mummies & Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt
By Susan D'Auria with Peter Lacovara and Catherine H. Roehrig
This book actually accompanies and is a catalogue for the Funerary Arts gallery in the Boston Museum. The book has excellent essays on the history of collecting, on Egyptian religion, and on the history of mummification itself. After the essays, the book examines the material remains of burial practices from Predynastic times to Roman. The photographs and drawings are not large, but are clear and often unusual. A superior book!
Boston: Museum of Fine Arts 1988. 276 pages, index.
Mysteries of the Mummies: The Story of the Manchester University Investigation
Edited By Rosalie David
This fine book began with the modern, scientific investigation of the mummy of a young girl., known as 1770. However, in order to give background and context, David and her co-authors describe life and religion and mummification in Ancient Egypt, and compare the pathology of 1770 with other mummies from Manchester, including the famous Two Brothers Nakht-Ankh, and Khnum-Nakht. Three of the Manchester mummies' faces were reconstructed in wax from study of the bones – 1770 has now had at least two ‘face-lifts' and the story of attempts to recreate her face is a fascinating one.
London: Cassell, 1978. Excellent black and white and colour illustrations, 192 pages with index.
The Mummy's Tale: The Scientific and Medical Investigation of Natsef-Amun, Priest in the Temple of Karnak
By Rosalie David and E. Tapp
Natsef-amun lived about three thousand years ago, in the reign of King Ramesses XI, just before the folks who were buried in the two yellow coffins in the ROM collection. He received a fine burial at Deir el Bahri and an excellent job of mummification and a good coffin. He was brought to England, and unwrapped in 1828. His body, still well-preserved, was investigated using the most modern methods by David and her team in 1989. A facial reconstruction was also done. One of the really wonderful things about this book is the history of the mummy trade and the history of unwrapping mummies. Excellent illustrations. There is some revisiting and updating of material from Mysteries of the Mummies.
London: Michael O'Mara Books, 1992. 176 pages, with index.
Royal Mummies in the Egyptian Museum
By Dodson and Ikram Selima
This seems, in retrospect, almost an outline for their bigger, and better book, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt. Very brief descriptions of the state and discovery of some of the royal mummies, with reproductions of the photos from the Catalogue General. A rather expensive, skinny, paperback, with no new insights or information, and some old misinformation repeated. Still, it's one of the least expensive ways to get the photos.
Cairo: American University Press, 1997. 58 pages
The Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity
By Dodson and Selima Ikram
The title warns the reader that more than mummies are involved. Dodson and Ikram also give a fairly brief account of canopic jars, coffins, animal mummies, wrappings, amulets, and so on. The photos are reasonably well reproduced, though some of the color plates are inexplicably dark. The disappointment of this generally good reference book is that the authors do not seem to have done any original research, and have accepted some misinformation and sloppy research done by others, and passed it on – the height of Tuthmosis III is one such. Attempting to cover a great deal of territory, the book fails to be thorough in any respect. A rather disappointing volume, despite its usefulness.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1998. 352 pages with index
Mummies: A Voyage Through Eternity
By Francoise Dunand and Roger Lichentberg
This small paperback is a very useful book, with excellent colour and black and white images. Some of the illustrations are reproductions of hundred year old engravings, others are the most recent images of scientific and archaeological work.
New York: Harry N, Abrams, Inc., 1994. (French Edition, 1991). An excellent bibliography, and index, remarkably comprehensive at 127 pages.
Mummies, Myth and Magic in Ancient Egypt
By Christine El Mahdy
This a generally good book, with lots of illustrations, colour and black and white, with reasonable reproductions of some of the images from the Catalogue General, and many photos of more recent investigations into mummified remains of Ancient Egyptians. El Mahdy discusses burial customs, religion, animal mummies, and even ‘the Curse of the Mummies,' with brevity, but clearly. Unfortunately, poor editing, or possibly incomplete research, have lead to mislabeling of some of the photos (e.g. p 174, Ramesses III is identified as Tuthmosis III!)
London: Thames and Hudson, 1989. 192 pages with index
The Egyptian Mummy: Secrets and Science
By Stuart Fleming with Bernard Fishman, David O'Connor, and David Silverman
This thin paperback is often available, and well worth picking up. It is an excellent introduction to the history of mummification in Egypt, with a description of the ways in which the study of mummies has contributed to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian health and disease patterns. This booklet accompanies the current gallery of mummification at the University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology in Philadelphia. Many fine illustrations of funerary equipment, practise, mummies, and x-rays and other scientific work.
University Museum Handbook I. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1980. 93 pages
Mummies: Life after Death in Ancient Egypt
By Renate Germer, et al.
A large, ‘coffee-table' book, with extraordinary illustrations of objects in European collections, and a fine, clear text. The book originally accompanied an exhibition on mummies in Hamburg and in Hildesheim. Clear maps and illustrations, and considerable focus on the scientific investigation of mummies, with a reconstruction of the face of an unwrapped mummy from a model based on a CT-Scan. The model itself had been produced by a computer-driven moulding machine, with rather unsatisfactory results.
Munich: Prestel, 1997. 141 pages, no index.
Mummies: Death and Life in Ancient Egypt
By James Hamilton-Paterson and Carol Andrews
This is a very through overview of almost every aspect of mummification. An excellent reference. The well-chosen illustrations are not particularly well reproduced on the newsprint paper of the book.
Penguin Books, 1979. 224 pages with index.
An X-Ray Atlas of the Royal Mummies
Edited By James E. Harris and Edward F. Wente
This is a must-have for the true scholar or fanatic. Harris is a dentist, and arranged to x-ray most of the royal mummies, wrapped and unwrapped. Many statements in more recent books are based on the research here. This is a scholarly book, and can be a bit heavy or confusing at times, but it will also help the reader to identify the complexity of some of the issues surrounding the royal mummies. Harris' estimates of the ages of the Royal Mummies seldom agreed with those of Egyptologists, which points out the difficulties of aging human remains. (Most estimates will come in too low; studies have been done by having forensic anthropologists estimate ages from human bodies in European, particularly English, cemeteries which were, for one reason or another, to be moved.
The ages at death, known from Parish records, seldom agreed with the scientific opinions. The anthropologists almost always underestimated ages, sometimes by ten, twenty or even more years.) Illustrations are good, both of Catalogue General Photos and of x-rays and computerized tracings. A pocket in the back of the book contains microfiche of astonishing photos of the mummies, many in colour, as well as of all the x-rays and tracings. There is also a very thorough consideration of the genealogy of the royal families of Egypt during the New Kingdom.
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1980. 403 pages, with index
X-Raying the Pharaohs: The Most Important Breakthroughs in Egyptology since the Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb
By James E. Harris and Edward F. Wente
This is a shorter, ‘popular' version of the X-Ray Atlas , with a good selection of photos from the bigger book, and a brief account of some of the Royal Mummies and of Harris' work. This book is usually available in paperback, having been reprinted several times.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. 195 pages with index.
Padihershef: The Egyptian Mummy
By Joyce Haynes and R. Jackson Wilson.
This booklet, often still available in stores, was produced to accompany an exhibition centered on a man of Antjau's time and place – possibly an acquaintance! The essays and catalogue strive to give a good idea of life in Thebes, about 650 bce., with good discussion of political and religious themes of the times. Padihershef's coffin is similar to Antjau's, and many of the artifacts in the exhibition were on loan from the ROM. Many good quality black and white illustrations.
One of the most interesting aspects of Padihershef is that his coffins and mummy came from Thebes in the early 1820's, and were examined in Boston in 1823 He was probably the first mummy brought to North America, and certainly the first to be studied. Mr. Wilson's essay describes Padihershef's early years in the USA, and the development of Egyptomania in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Springfield, Mass.: George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, 1984. 48 pages.
Ancient Egyptian Literature
By Miriam Lichtheim
ichtheim provided new translations, with excellent notes, of many documents. Her books, three volumes, contain stories, hymns and poems as well as some historical and political documents. Although these books contain no images at all, they help the reader to understand the Ancient Egyptians when they were ‘mummies in expectation only.' What words went into the tombs? What songs ran through the heads of the living?
Berkely: University of California Press, 1976.
Faces of Pharaohs: Royal Mummies and Coffins from Ancient Times
By Robert B. Partridge
One of the best of a recent spate of books on the bodies of the pharaohs. Profusely illustrated, and clearly organized. You will see good quality reproductions of the photos from the Catalogue General, but not just of the most famous pharaohs – queens and nobles are also included. It's very interesting to read about and look at the mummies of, for example, Hatshepsut's female ancestors. Partridge discusses the present location of the mummies and their coffins and briefly states the evidence concerning identification of each. Drawings of some of the tombs help the reader to understand why there could be such confusion as to who is who. Partridge has taken account of recent medical research. This is a better book than Ikram and Dodson's.
London: Rubicon Press, 1994. 242 pages with index.
The Complete Valley of the Kings
By Nicholas Reeves and Richard Wilkinson
Beautifully illustrated, with many fine maps, this excellent book takes a reader through the history of the Valley of the Kings, both ancient and modern, and examines individually the tombs found up to 1996. A valuable reference, and a pleasant book to dip into from time to time.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
The Valley of the Kings
By John Romer
Romer's clear, engaging style, and many fine, rare images, combine to make this an excellent book for reference or for pleasure reading. While the mummies are not his main focus, there is a fine chapter on their discovery and unwrapping, and a great deal of useful information on how archaeologists have worked with the evidence of human remains over the last two hundred years.
London; Michael O'Mara Books, 1981. (Reprinted in paper.)
Unwrapping a Mummy: The Life, Death, and Embalming of Horemkensi
By John H. Taylor
Horemkensi lived in Thebes during the XXIst Dynasty, and worked at both Karnak and Medinet Habu Temples. His ROM contemporary would have been Nesmut, the girl from the unplastered wooden coffin at the back of the gallery. Taylor spends the first half of the book writing up the ‘life and times' and the second half detailing the scientific investigation. Very good drawings, photos, and colour photos.
Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1996. 111 pages, with index.
Part II: Egyptian Medicine
There are many fine books now on Ancient Egyptian medicine, most of which discuss mummification.
The Medical Skills of Ancient Egypt
By J. Worth. Estes
A fine account of the ancient medical system, though not much on mummification per se.
Clinton, MA: Watson, 1993 (revised edition.) Some black and white line drawings,198 pages with index.
The Healing Hand: Man and Wounds in the Ancient World
By Guido Majno
Dr. Majno deals with Greek and Romans as well as Ancient Egyptians. There are reports of experiments to determine the efficacy of various ancient preparations, whose chemical compositions were determined by modern means. Wounds are considered as well as disease. The book is excellent for both scientific and general audiences. Some colour plates, many good quality black and white reproductions, line drawings, and charts.
Cambridge: Harvard, 1975. 571 pages, with index.
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
By John F. Nunn
This book discusses the Ancient Egyptians' ideas about how the human body works, as well as evidence of health and disease patterns in Ancient Egypt. Black and white photos and charts. The photos are not as clear as one might wish. Really, an invaluable book for those interested in the life of the ancient folks.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. 240 pages with index and excellent bibliography.
Egyptian Medicine
By Carole Reeves
Another in this fine series. Brief, very well illustrated with many photos.
Shire Egyptology, 1992. 72 page with index.
Part III : Human Remains
Many cultures attempt to preserve the bodies of the dead, and in some climates, such preservation is almost automatic. This section of the bibliography deals with books on preserved human remains, and with paleopathology when it makes use of such remains. It's only fair to warn readers that some of the books in this section are very scholarly, and some are just plain odd. Read at your own risk.
Tombs, Grave and Mummies.: 50 Discoveries in World Archaeology
Edited By Paul G. Bahn
A beautiful, outsize popular book, with fine colour photos and clear, readable text. Though the subtitle speaks of discoveries in archaeology, the book focuses on mummies, tombs, and graves indeed. Many of the stories in this book were very quietly reported in Canada, and much of the information will be new, as will the photos. Some of the photos are pretty gruesome, as might be expected.
New York: Barnes and Noble, 1996.
The Mummies of Urumchi
By Elizabeth Barber Wayland
This book deals with the ‘Caucasian' naturally mummified folks found in the far west of China. Wayland's chief interest is in ancient textiles, on which she is an authority (she's the author of Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years.), but she took great care to explain where these mummies are, and how and why they might have got where they are. She makes the textile material fascinating, and explains it clearly. The maps, black and white illustrations, and colourphotographs are all excellent.
New York: Norton, 1998. 240 pages with index.
The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People
By Don Brothwell
This fairly inexpensive and beautifully produced paperback is still available. Brothwell deals with the bog people of northern Europe, and the intriguing St. Bee's Man, as well as the Iceman, and Egyptian mummies, and general questions of paleopathology. Excellent illustrations in colour and black and white – some only for the strong of stomach.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, in association with the British Museum, 1986.128 pages with index.
The Encyclopedia of Mummies
By Bob Brier
A compendium of information about preserved human bodies from many cultures and times, as well as mummy movies and Egyptomania (mummy-mania?). A very fine bibliography. Some useful information, some misinformation.
Many illustrations, but the quality of reproduction is not high due to the quality of the paper, 248 pages with index.
Human Remains
By Andrew Chamberlain
University of California Press/British Museum, 1994. Part of the Interpreting the Past series, this fine book outlines some of the issues in studying human remains, and gives some sense of what can and cannot be learned from bones and tissue.
New York: Facts on File, 1998. Black and white photos and charts, 64 pages with index.
Mummies, Disease, and Ancient Cultures
By Aidan and Eve Cockburn
The first hundred pages of this very fine book describe the three first truly modern and scientific examinations of ancient Egyptians; one of whom was Nakht. Good illustrations, with many charts. Scholarly but not hopelessly technical. A fine reference. There is a new edition of this in the bookstores.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 243 with index.
Health and the Rise of Civilization
By Mark Nathan Cohen
A splendid introduction to the major prehistoric social and technological transformations that resulted in the emergence of civilization. He is particularly good on the history of infectious diseases, and the mortality rates for various cultures. His book helps one to judge claims in other books about ‘average age at death' and so on.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. 285 pages with tables and index.
The Body Snatchers: Stiff and Other Ghoulish Sights
By Frederick Drimmer
Fortunately, there are no photos in this book, but one's imagination can supply the illustrations to these odd, but true, tales of bodies and odd preservations. Among the tales Drimmer tells are those of the poor Irish Giant, Charles Byrne, Julian Pastrana (the Ugliest Woman in the World according to her promoters) and the Hottentot Venus, also known as Saartjie Baartman. This book straddles the line between books on human remains and those on human oddities, which is not surprising as Drimmer wrote one of the best and least patronizing books on the latter, Very Special People.
New York: Citadel, 1981. No index, but an excellent bibliography.
The Greenland Mummies
By Jens Peder Hart Hansen, Jergen Meldgaard and Jorgen Nordqvist
A readable account of the discovery in 1972. In Greenland, of the graves of six women and two children who had died about 500 years ago. Bodies and clothing were in an excellent state of preservation which enabled the investigators to learn a great deal about life in the North, and to test against this evidence, stories, sagas, and travellers' tales concerning the Inuit. Excellent drawings, black and white and very moving colour photos.
Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991 (English). 192 pages with index.
Disease in Ancient Man
Edited By Gerald D. Hart
This book contains papers from a symposium on the subject. The papers cover such topics as evidence of infections in ancient peoples, and paleodemographics.
Toronto: Clarke Irwin,1983.296 pages with black and white illustrations and tables.
When We Die: What becomes of the body after Death
By Cedric Mims
Dr. Mims is former Professor at Guy's Hospital, London. He is interested in murder, mayhem, and mummies. His book is odd, not always accurate, but entirely engrossing (and gross, at times, too!) There are sections on Ancient Egypt and mummification, which do contain some odd errors, such as the idea that at 1.80 cm Horemkensi was ‘short', but all in all this is a fascinating read. He covers every topic related to death and dying that you might like to read about, and a great many you'd probably rather not.
London: Robinson,1998. 370 pages with index, no illustrations, fortunately.
Making Faces: Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence
By John Prag and Richard Neave
This book describes attempts to reconstruct some famous and some not-so-famous faces from antiquity based on bones and mummified remains. Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander, is one of the most interesting examples. One of the Manchester Mummies, 1770, got a ‘make-over' in the 1990s, and now looks much more ‘Egyptian.' This book shows what is possible and what is not in reconstructions. It is not merely readable, but absolutely fascinating. Excellent black and white and colour illustrations.
College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. 256 with index.
The Archaeology of Disease
By Charlotte Roberts and Keith Manchester
This is really a textbook, but it's well written, and a fine resource for information on how the affects of disease and injury can be read on skeletons and mummies. Knowing a little about this can help one to be properly skeptical of some claims that a particular ancient person was ‘obviously murdered,' and so on.
Second Edition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997. Many illustrations and tables, 243 pages with index.
The Man in the Ice: The Discovery of a 5,000 year old body Reveals the Secrets of the Stone Age
By Conrad Spindler
A fine ‘popular' account of the finding of the Iceman in the Otztaler Alps on the Austrian-Italian Border. Spindler was the leader of the investigation team. The body and all the belongings of Otzi are considered.
Toronto: Doubleday, 1994. 305 pages with index, colour photos, and very useful line-drawings.
Lindow Man: the Body in the Bog
By I. M. Stead, J.B. Bourke and Don Brothwell
This is a beautiful book, large format and well produced, with excellent material on the history of bog bodies in Northern Europe, and of the Lindow Man in particular. More than half the book deals with the scientific investigations; everything you wanted to know, and maybe more.
Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1986. 208 pages with index, maps and many illustrations.
