The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead
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- Synopsis
- Now available in paperback--The Mummy Congress is "clear, direct and intense . . . all the stories sparkle. Pringle is a crack-shot storyteller." --New York Times Book ReviewPerhaps the most eccentric of all scientific meetings, the World Congress on Mummy Studies brings together mummy experts from all over the globe and airs their latest findings. Who are these scientists, and what draws them to this morbid yet captivating field? The Mummy Congress, written by acclaimed science journalist Heather Pringle, examines not just the world of mummies, but also the people obsessed with them.atop icy mountains. She learns of the extraordinary skills of ancient Egyptian embalmers capable of preserving bodies, in the words of one mummy expert, "until the end of time"; of the horrifying sacrifices made by ancient South Americans to pacify their gods; and of the weird mummified parasites, preserved in the guts of millennia-old bodies, that still wreak havoc across the world today. Ranging from the famous excavation of Tutankhamen to tales of ascetic Japanese monks trying to mummify themselves, and from the Russians' terrified attempts to embalm the body of Stalin to the fleeting craze for public mummy unwrappings in nineteenth-century New Orleans, The Mummy Congress demonstrates that our own obsession with the preserved dead has a long and bizarre history. Packed with extraordinary stories and narrated with great humor and verve, The Mummy Congress is a compelling and entertaining journey into the world of the everlasting dead.
- Copyright:
- 2010
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 368 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780786871865
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780786865512
- Publisher:
- Hyperion
- Date of Addition:
- 06/17/21
- Copyrighted By:
- Heather Pringle
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Social Studies
- Grade Levels:
- Eighth grade
- Reading Age:
- 13 and up
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.