Secrets of Ancient Egypt

Rating:
Summary: Capturing the imagination of the general reader
Review: Whether mummifying a donated corpse to see how the Egyptians did it, or excavating a pet cemetery of sorts, or looting one of Cleopatra's Needles in 1878 to make America one of the company of nations to display an ancient obelisk of its very own (there are now more Cleopatra's Needles in Rome than in Egypt), Egyptologists have long been able to capture the imaginations of the general population.

This compilation from "Archaeology Magazine" begins with the most fascinating of Egypt's secrets, the mummy. Bob Brier, consulting everything he could find on the subject, realized how little was really known and set out to create a modern mummy to answer some of the practical questions. He took a year just to assemble the right bronze and copper and obsidian knives, to collect the natron from the salt fields north of Cairo, to replicate the embalmer's table. As Brier expected, the actual procedure (accompanied by photos) answered many questions, from the practicality of the obsidian knife to the Egyptians' fairly limited knowledge of anatomy.

Brier's attention-getting piece leads on to other mummy research, revealing the prevalence of parasitic disease and the shorter, more brutal lives of the laboring classes as opposed to the wealthy classes. Modern carbon dating and scanning techniques revealed the busy history of a damaged mummy, which had been unwrapped, rewrapped and held together with wooden dowels. But each emerging answer - three dates spanning hundreds of years, for instance - gave rise to new questions.

The book's second section explores Egyptian origins, including a lively piece by Renee Friedman on the busy industrial facility (beer brewing, pottery production) at the early, Predynastic site of Hierakonpolis, where mummification was just beginning and the average worker was well-nourished but dead before 35.

The third section includes six articles on the "Marvels of Giza," including the origins and purpose of the Sphinx, and several examinations of the workers who built the pyramids. An article on dating the pyramids includes surprisingly fascinating detail on the organic materials used in the mortar and how carbon dating is done.

Part four explores other sites - "The Other Pyramids" in ancient Nubia, "Hunting Alexander's Tomb," and the gem mines so valuable to Rome.

"The Saga of Cleopatra's Needles," by Bob Brier, comes in the fifth and final section and describes several daring feats of looting, the most arduous being the American acquisition of an obelisk for Central Park. And Brier has another interesting piece on the gathering of scientists in Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Egypt. These scientists - chemists, botanists, mathematicians, naturalists, engineers and more - in addition to their many sketches and collections, unearthed the Rosetta Stone in 1799, making possible the eventual translation of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Sidebars throughout focus in on findings of particular interest - diseases found in studies of skeletons, the burial of a woman who may have been a witch doctor, the secrets yielded up by teeth, to mention a few. Black and white photographs or diagrams illustrate many of the undated articles and there's a useful timeline and index. Appendices include short bios of the authors and suggested further readings listed for each article.

Geared for the general reader, most of the articles are written with the juicier details up front and just enough science to remind you that archaeology is a matter of patience and care and excavating a ruin takes a great deal of time - more than some modern projects, like sewers, are willing to allow. The writing ranges from skilled and enthusiastic to pedantic, but the wooden academicians are definitely in the minority. An enjoyable, informative, and wide-ranging collection.