The Mummy's Tale: The Scientific and Medical Investigation of Natsef-Amun, Priest in the Temple at Karnak

This interesting, well-documented monograph recounts a 1989 investigation of the 3000-year-old mummy of a Karnak temple priest at Thebes. Working in collaboration with pathologist Tapp, David--a British Egyptologist who is the director of the Manchester Egyptian Mummy Research Project--suggests that instead of dying from disease as earlier studies had implied, the priest may have suffered a violent death from an insect sting or strangulation, especially in view of his elevated stature in a socially and politically turbulent Egypt under Rameses XI. Following concise summaries of Egyptian history and detailed descriptions of the mummification process prescribed by religious funerary beliefs, each of the 14 members of the Manchester Project's interdisciplinary team offers data derived from his or her own specialty--including radiology, histiopathology (tissue examination), endoscopy and dental exams. Facial reconstruction based on the clues left by such remains as skulls, jaws and teeth is so lifelike, the artist claims, that the priest's friends would have recognized him in it. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)