Conversations With Mummies: New Light on the Lives of Ancient Egyptians - Hardcover

The grisly but imperial mummified head of Rameses the Great stares from the page, communicating with another time. As science reveals more and more about ancient Egyptians, it also, by comparison, tells us more about our own bodies, especially our diseases. Detailed study of ancient remains is the basis for Conversations with Mummies. Written by a nonspecialist, Rick Archbold, with Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum, this approachable book takes as its underlying theme the story of the work of the Manchester Mummy Project, a world leader in the medical analysis of mummies. In addition, it introduces the history of Egyptology and provides background information about ancient Egypt. Descriptions of mummy autopsies and a modern mummification reconstruction grab the imagination, as do several daily life stories of individual Egyptians gleaned from their mummies. Attractive and absorbing, the book can also be thought-provoking. Rosalie David feels an almost personal relationship with the mummies she Studies, and the book emphasizes how mummies are now valued as records of individual lives. As Archibald writes, "Egyptian paleopathology, mummy science, is about life: life in ancient times and life today." --Karen Tiley, Amazon.co.uk

Rosalie David has been the Director of the Egyptian Mummy Research Project at the Manchester Museum in Manchester, UK since it began in 1973. The project has used a range of multi-disciplinary techniques in the examination of mummies, including radiology, electron microscopy, serology, histopathology, fingerprinting, dental studies and scientific facial reconstruction. Dr. David is an Honorary Lecturer in Comparative Religion and Director of the Centre of Biomedical and Forensic Egyptology at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. She has published 16 books on Egytology subjects, and has edited or co-edited 3 others. She has contributed numerous papers to a range of scientific journals, and has lectured extensively on her subject around the world.