Egyptian Mummies : Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: Bob Brier's wonderful book, "Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art" could have been titled, "Everyting You Ever Wanted To Know About Egyptian Mummies--And more!" He discusses everything about this fascinating process in a fresh, entertaining but "popularly scholarly" style. I particularly enjoyed the historical accounts of mummy discoveries and the sometimes eccentric personalities involved. The method Howard Carter used to remove the inner sarcophagus of Tutankhamen was marvelous! Anyone who enjoyed Dr. Brier's recent cable-TV series, "The Great Egyptians" will enjoy this book. (The series, and Dr. Brier's engaging on-air delivery, was what made me seek out his book.)

Rating:
Summary: Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art
Review: Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art written by Bob Brier is a book about the practice of human mummification, using paleopathology, we find out information of what happened in Egypt... the Egypt of the Pharaohs.

Not a single pharaoh's mummy had been discovered through most of the nineteenth century despite one hundred years of assiduous searching. All the pyramids had been robbed long before, all the royal tombs had been thoroughly looted... at least as far as anyone knew, or was saying. Yet someone was not saying, because in the 1870's spectacular objects once belonging to pharaohs began to appear on ht antiquities market, harbingers of a great find.

This book is about the Egyptology complete with historical context of ancient Egyptian culture. Replete with stories of grave robberies and stolen mummies, as well as accounts of trial and successes of archaeologists who pieced together the puzzles and unlocked the riddles of the land of the pyramids and the Sphinx. This book has the most complete analysis of the art of mummification ever written, with a comprehensive listing and description of the known royal mummies, their subsequent unwrappings, X-rays, and CAT scans... also, where are they housed now.

This book, in all rights, is a detailed look at what a mummy is. Not only were they of humans but there are mummies of cats, dogs, birds and cattle. What ever the pharaoh needed in the after-life. The narrative is free flowing and will keep you reading as it is very interestingly written. Engaging to the point that you want to know more as the book proceeds till the ending.

The research in this book was all in preparation for the mummification of a human body. From ancient records and the exanination of mummies, that have been pieced together from the basic mummification process.

To the light-hearted side there is a chapter on how the movies have treated mummies from Boris Karloff to abbot and Constello and the Marvel Comics characters... leaving the old adage one can't always judge a mummy by its wrappings. One thing of note that I found very interesting was a price list for mummification in this book from ancient times and linen clothe was the most expensive item on the list, then the jackel-head death mask worn by the embalmer/ priest in his role as Anubis, the god of the embalming. I can only conclude that a new mask was used for each embalming.

This book gives a good detailed descriptionof the embalming process and can get quite graphic, so be forewarned. I found the book to be fascinating, nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art
Review: Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art written by Bob Brier is a book about the practice of human mummification, using paleopathology, we find out information of what happened in Egypt... the Egypt of the Pharaohs.

Not a single pharaoh's mummy had been discovered through most of the nineteenth century despite one hundred years of assiduous searching. All the pyramids had been robbed long before, all the royal tombs had been thoroughly looted... at least as far as anyone knew, or was saying. Yet someone was not saying, because in the 1870's spectacular objects once belonging to pharaohs began to appear on ht antiquities market, harbingers of a great find.

This book is about the Egyptology complete with historical context of ancient Egyptian culture. Replete with stories of grave robberies and stolen mummies, as well as accounts of trial and successes of archaeologists who pieced together the puzzles and unlocked the riddles of the land of the pyramids and the Sphinx. This book has the most complete analysis of the art of mummification ever written, with a comprehensive listing and description of the known royal mummies, their subsequent unwrappings, X-rays, and CAT scans... also, where are they housed now.

This book, in all rights, is a detailed look at what a mummy is. Not only were they of humans but there are mummies of cats, dogs, birds and cattle. What ever the pharaoh needed in the after-life. The narrative is free flowing and will keep you reading as it is very interestingly written. Engaging to the point that you want to know more as the book proceeds till the ending.

The research in this book was all in preparation for the mummification of a human body. From ancient records and the exanination of mummies, that have been pieced together from the basic mummification process.

To the light-hearted side there is a chapter on how the movies have treated mummies from Boris Karloff to abbot and Constello and the Marvel Comics characters... leaving the old adage one can't always judge a mummy by its wrappings. One thing of note that I found very interesting was a price list for mummification in this book from ancient times and linen clothe was the most expensive item on the list, then the jackel-head death mask worn by the embalmer/ priest in his role as Anubis, the god of the embalming. I can only conclude that a new mask was used for each embalming.

This book gives a good detailed descriptionof the embalming process and can get quite graphic, so be forewarned. I found the book to be fascinating, nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Quirky and Brilliant
Review: I read Dr. Brier's article on mummification in Discover magazine sometime in 2000, which led me to read this book. It is meticulously researched, the methods well-described (perhaps too much so - some of the details are simply nauseating!), and the subject well-covered. His sense of humour, though obviously warped, is quite enjoyable, and the book is a great read. It also provides matter for the serious amateur and expert alike to ponder. A splendid book.

Rating:
Summary: From An Expert
Review: More than any Egyptologist Bob Brier knows mummies.The book opens with a polite rejection by his university to perform a
mummification on a human body based on ancient sources. Since the publication of the book Brier and a team of doctors has perfomed the procedure to determine if those descriptions were accurate. They were.
Brier's uses the mummy as a centerpiece to give us an overview of ancient Egyptian religion, culture and history. In later chapters the mummy as a pop icon in film and other media in modern times are discussed. Brier's writes in a lively style with the ocassional tongue in cheek that prevents the subject from ever becoming dull or boring. If you are looking for a book on mummies that also gives you a great introduction to ancient Egypt then you can do no better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is great fun and full of fascinating little details. It covers the process of mummification and interesting info about the history of Egyptology. I loved the stories about the archaeological finds at Saqqara and Deir el Bahri. My one complaint is the last chapter, which is a lame summary of mummies in modern fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is great fun and full of fascinating little details. It covers the process of mummification and interesting info about the history of Egyptology. I loved the stories about the archaeological finds at Saqqara and Deir el Bahri. My one complaint is the last chapter, which is a lame summary of mummies in modern fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: This is a wonderful one stop volume on Egyptian mummies. Detailed and focused on the process of how the Egyptians developed mummification. The book begins with the memos between Dr. Brier and school administration on performing an actual human mummification on campus and then ends with the teaser that any further information on the modern mummification will be published elsewhere.

For anyone who has a fascination about mortuary practices, Ancient Egyptian history, and paleo-archaeology or even the developoment of Egyptian archaeological practices this book is for you. Broken down by dynasties Brier carefully provides information about the mummification process through those time periods while giving small doses of Egyptian history. Brier also has a nice section on the Mummy in movies and popular media which is a nice send off to the previous historical chapters.

It is a fascinating introduction and I could not put my copy down. The writing style is very readable and easy going. The only reason that I give it 4 stars is due to him not providing information on the modern mummifcation that he performed a few years ago. For further information on that mummification you have to find his article in Archaeology (Jan/Feb. 2001) or articles in the Journal of Physical Anthropology. After reading those articles I thought a chapter on that mummification would not have been out of place nor of too much strain on resources.

For those wanting to start an Egyptology section to their library this would be a fine edition and so would the Oxford history of Ancient Egypt.