The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead
Language: English
Published by Fourth Estate, 2001
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: Book Grocer, Tullamarine, VIC, AustraliaBook Grocer
AbeBooks seller since October 15, 2025
Condition: Used
£ 8.16
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Add to basketItem description from seller
[Author], [Publisher]. NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title. Author: Heather Pringle Format: Hardback Number of Pages: 384 In 1998 Heather Pringle visited the remote Chilean port of Arica for The World Congress on Mummy Studies. This book introduces us to the eccentric world of the researchers and academics who investigate such phenomena as the child mummies of the Chinchorro, preserved over 7000 years ago, animal mummies from Ancient Eygpt, the 19th century Buddhist tradition of self-mummification to ward off decay, and the political mummification of 20th century demagogues like Lenin and Eva Peron. Pringle also looks at the uses of mummies for today's historians and scientists and how much they tell us about ancient cultures. This research is sometimes bizarre, but often reveals fundamental truths. …
Seller Inventory # 9781841151113-SECONDHAND
- Title
- The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead
- Author
- Heather Pringle
- Publisher
- Fourth Estate
- Publication year
- 2001
- Book Type
- Secondhand, Hardback
- Binding
- Secondhand, Hardback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1841151114
- ISBN 13
- 9781841151113
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.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of 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.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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AbeBooks seller since October 15, 2025
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