The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead - Hardcover

Pringle, Heather

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841151114 ISBN 13: 9781841151113

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2001

Synopsis

Throughout history, mummies have held a
powerful place in our collective imagination. Packed with extraordinary stories and narrated with great humour and verve, THE MUMMY CONGRESS is a compelling and entertaining journey into the world of the everlasting dead.

When acclaimed science journalist Heather Pringle was dispatched to cover a little-known scientific conference, she found herself in the midst of the most passionate gathering of her working life – dozens of mummy experts battling over the implications of their latest discoveries. Infected with their mania, Pringle spent the next year circling the globe, stopping in to visit the leading scientists so she could see first-hand the breathtaking delicacy and unexpected importance of their work.

In THE MUMMY CONGRESS, she recounts the intriguing findings from her travels, bringing to life the hitherto unknown worlds of the long-dead, and revealing what mummies have to tell us about ourselves. Pringle's journeys lead her to the lifelike remains of medieval saints entombed in Italy's grand cathedrals, eerily preserved bog bodies in the Netherlands bearing signs of violent and untimely slaughter, and frozen Inca princesses glimpsed for the first time atop icy mountains.

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 the nineteenth-century New Orleans, Pringle demonstrates that our own obsessions with the preserved dead have a long and bizarre history.

About this title

About the Author

Heather Pringle is a journalist and writer who has written on archaeology and ancient cultures and reviews in numerous magazines including National Geographic, Discover, New Scientist, Science and Geo. She is also the author of two books including In Search of Ancient North America. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.

From the Back Cover

When acclaimed science journalist Heather Pringle was dispatched to a remote part of northern Chile to cover a little-known scientific conference, she found herself in the midst of the most passionate gathering of her working life – dozens of mummy experts crammed into a rambling seaside hotel, battling over the implications of their latest discoveries. Infected with their mania, Pringle spent the next year circling the globe, stopping in to visit leading scientists so she could see at first-hand the breathtaking delicacy and unexpected importance of their work.

In The Mummy Congress, she recounts the intriguing findings from her travels, bringing to life the hitherto unknown worlds of the long-dead, and revealing what mummies have to tell us about ourselves. Pringle’s journeys lead her to the lifelike remains of medieval saints entombed in Italy’s grand cathedrals, eerily preserved bog bodies in the Netherlands bearing signs of violent and untimely slaughter, and frozen Inca princesses glimpsed for the first time 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 the nineteenth-century New Orleans, Pringle demonstrates that our own obsessions with the preserved dead have a long and bizarre history. Packed with extraordinary stories and narrated with great humour and verve, The Mummy Congress is a compelling and entertaining journey into the world of the everlasting dead.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841151114
• ISBN 13: 9781841151113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384