Dimensions
153 x 234 x 16mm
Ancient Egypt, land of the pharaohs, bore witness to the rise and fall of the world's greatest civilisation. For almost two centuries Egyptologists have been able to read the hieroglyphics that explain the thoughts and deeds of the past, while archaeologists have been able to recover the material remains of this vanished people.
In addition to this, the Egyptians left another astonishing treasury of information: their dead. Now, thanks to rapid advances in scientific analytical techniques, it is possible to analyse the mummified bodies of the Egyptians themselves. The results of this new approach can be spectacular.
This book traces three major scientific investigations as they reconsider some of the oldest and most puzzling questions in Egyptology: who exactly built the Great Pyramid of Giza, how did they do it, and why? Evidence taken from the newly discovered pyramid workers' village and its associated cemetery helps to dispel some of the persistent myths of pyramid building perpetuated in popular fiction and Hollywood films.
Why did the claustrophobic 18th Dynasty die out? Was it the result of incest and inherited disease? And who exactly was the boy-pharaoh Tutankhamen? DNA analysis and the re-examination of a nameless skeleton play their part in determining the sequence of events at the end of this turbulent era.
The investigation allows us to draw remarkable conclusions concerning hitherto hidden aspects of life and health at the very end of the New Kingdom. These discoveries all reveal astonishing truths about the world of Ancient Egypt, the reality of the pharaohs' lives and the remarkable legacy they left behind.
