The handbook of mummy studies: New frontiers in scientific and cultural perspectives

Dong Hoon Shin, Raffaella Bianucci

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Owing to their unique state of preservation, mummies provide us with significant historical and scientific knowledge of humankind's past. This handbook, written by prominent international experts in mummy studies, offers readers a comprehensive guide to new understandings of the field's most recent trends and developments. It provides invaluable information on the health states and pathologies of historic populations and civilizations, as well as their socio-cultural and religious characteristics. Addressing the developments in mummy studies that have taken place over the past two decades - which have been neglected for as long a time - the authors excavate the ground-breaking research that has transformed scientific and cultural knowledge of our ancient predecessors. The handbook investigates the many new biotechnological tools that are routinely applied in mummy studies, ranging from morphological inspection and endoscopy to minimally invasive radiological techniques that are used to assess states of preservation. It also looks at the paleoparasitological and pathological approaches that have been employed to reconstruct the lifestyles and pathologic conditions of ancient populations, and considers the techniques that have been applied to enhance biomedical knowledge, such as craniofacial reconstruction, chemical analysis, stable isotope analysis and ancient DNA analysis. This interdisciplinary handbook will appeal to academics in historical, anthropological, archaeological and biological sciences, and will serve as an indispensable companion to researchers and students interested in worldwide mummy studies.

Original languageEnglish
PublisherSpringer Nature
Number of pages1186
ISBN (Electronic)9789811533549
ISBN (Print)9789811533532
DOIs
StatePublished - 18 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Ancient metagenomes
  • Arctic and subarctic mummies
  • Bog bodies
  • Chinchorro mummies
  • Egyptian mummies
  • Embalming techniques
  • Endoscopy and Autopsy
  • Global mummy studies
  • Guanche mummies
  • Mummies in Catacombs and Crypts
  • Mummies in East Asia
  • Mummification processes
  • Mummy conservation
  • Museology of mummies
  • Paleopathology
  • Parasitology
  • Post-mortem degradation

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