EGYPTIAN
to meet a demand for votive offerings. Changing attitudes towards the study of mummies are summarised in Chapter 7, from their acquisition and unwrapping as curiosities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to modern, multidisciplinary investigations which provide new information about lifestyle, disease, nutrition and the mummification process. The advantages and limitations of these diagnostic techniques are outlined, as well as possibilities and strategies for future research. The book ends with a chronology, a brief but useful list of further reading suggestions, web resources, and a glossary. This book provides an authoritative summary of Egyptian funerary beliefs and customs, effectively pulling together information which, in some instances, is otherwise accessible only in academic or scientific publications; appropriate references are provided to enable the reader to pursue more detailed accounts of scientific analyses or archaeological discoveries. The book is lavishly illustrated throughout with a selection of papyri, coffins, mummies and tomb scenes, mainly drawn from the British Museum collections, accompanied by very informative captions. Good use is also made of radiographs to clarify particular points of discussion: CT-scans (Figures 44 and 45) effectively demonstrate embalmers’ methods. As an excellent introduction to the subject area, this book is highly recommended for those with a general interest in Egyptology, and for teachers and first-year undergraduate students of Egyptology and ancient history. ROSALIE DAVID
ARCHAEOLOGY
Agathe Legros and Frédéric Payraudeau (eds), Secrets de Momies. Pratiques funéraires et visions de l’Au-delà en Égypte ancienne. Éditions Errance, Paris, 2011 (ISBN 978 2 87772 471 5). Price €15. This small but attractively produced book accompanied an exhibition held at the Musée archéologique at Jublains, which focused on funerary practices in the first millennium BC. The exhibition sought to contextualise the findings from the CT scanning of two mummies belonging to the Besançon Museum, which was undertaken by the radiologist Samuel Mérigeaud in 2007. In addition, a number of the regional museums of France – Amiens, Angers, Besançon, Nantes, Roanne, Soissons and Chateau-Gontier – contributed objects from their collections. The multi-authored book comprises a series of short essays and a catalogue. The essays discuss the Egyptian collection of Besançon, the myth of Osiris and his cult, funerary beliefs and practices and the historical background to the period under consideration. The core – and most original part – of the publication is the description of the scanning at the university hospital at Besançon, and what this revealed. The aim was to gather data non-destructively under three headings – anthropology (sex, age, height), palaeopathology (especially of bones) and methods of embalming. The two mummies, both from Thebes, date from the beginning and end of the Third Intermediate Period. The earlier, that of Seramun, a highranking priest of the temple of Amun, has been dated by the style of his coffins to the early Twenty-First Dynasty; the later one,
of Ankhpakhered, can be attributed to the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. Unusually, this man, though buried at Thebes, was the son of a priest of the goddess Neith, a circumstance which might suggest that he belonged to a family originating in the Delta where the cult of Neith was prominent. CT slices and 3-D reconstructions from the data provided answers to the main questions, confirming that both bodies were male, an assumption which can never be taken for granted, since mummies and coffins were frequently transposed by 19th century purveyors of antiquities. Seramun had died in his sixties, Ankhpakhered in his thirties, and both suffered from the severe dental problems which were endemic in ancient Egypt on account of the attrition which resulted mainly from gritty contaminants in bread. Seramun, as might be expected of an older man, also
Who Was Who in Egyptology Fourth Edition. Edited by Morris Bierbrier First published in 1951, edited by Warren R Dawson, Who Was Who in Egyptology is a standard reference work for anyone interested in the history of Egyptology. From the earliest travellers to scholars and excavators of more recent times, the book contains biographical details of the lives and careers of those who have shaped the discipline, with photographs of many of its subjects. The second edition, edited by Eric Uphill, was published in 1969 and the third, edited by Morris Bierbrier, in 1995. The Egypt Exploration Society will shortly be publishing the fourth edition, again edited by Dr Bierbrier and containing many new and revised entries and a wider range of photographs than in previous editions. Publication of this volume has been made possible by the generous donations of EES members. If you would like to help the Society in this way, please go to: www.ees.ac.uk/support/index.html The fourth edition of Who Was Who in Egyptology will be published early in 2012. If you would like to be notified when it is published please contact rob.tamplin@ees.ac.uk
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