The Mummy Congress : Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead
Language: English
Published by Fourth Estate, London, 2001
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: CHARLES BOSSOM, Ely, CAMBS, United KingdomCHARLES BOSSOM
AbeBooks seller since August 16, 2004
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 3.00
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Colour photographs / plates. 386 pages clean and tight. 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. Size: 8vo.…
Seller Inventory # 132314
- Title
- The Mummy Congress : Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead
- Author
- Pringle, Heather
- Publisher
- Fourth Estate, London
- Publication year
- 2001
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Very Good
- Binding
- Hard Cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1841151114
- ISBN 13
- 9781841151113
- Illustrator
- Colour Photographs
- Edition
- First UK Edition.
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.
CHARLES BOSSOM
Ely, CAMBS, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since August 16, 2004
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Charles Bossom, 9 LODE WAY, HADDENHAM, ELY, CB6 3UL charles.bossom@googlemail.com Charles Bossom has worked in the Book Trade since 1963, commencing at WH Smith Oxford and retiring in 1999 as Regional Manager Central England. The Charles Bossom bookselling business was started in early 2000. hhtp://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesbossom
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