Serendipity got me hooked on this exquisite album on mummies, showcasing the old-aged human desire for immortality.
Having just visited the Body Worlds exhibition in Ludwigsburg, I was attuned to a book that describes not only the history of mummies, but also the present mummification techniques, like plastination and cryonics.
The book is divided in 6 sections.
Mummies – worldwide and natural – is a nice introduction to what happens during the stages of death, how natural mummification takes place and two specific chapters on ice and bog mummies.
Mummies – a road by the cultures – is the most detailed section of the book, sharing history bits, philosophical explanations and technical details on the preserving techniques used in both animal and human cadavers. It starts with Egyptian mummies, but it extends on rarely-approached ways of preserving the dead like the Andean, Oceanian and Australian ones.
The chapters on Chinese and Japanese mummies are full of interesting details regarding the local traditions that evolved into creating their unique styles of preserving corpses. The Latin names of all the plants that were used – in the diet of the Japanese self-mummifying monks or in the oils, wines and vinegars used in the Chinese rituals – is astonishing in breadth.
A very unusual and interesting chapter here was the one on mummies from monasteries and churches – lots of European saints, popes and leaders were (more or less secretly) embalmed. A unique character laid down to rest in such a place was Rosalia Lombardo, who died of Spanish fever as a child; she still has the same look of a china doll after being preserved by Dr. Solafia.Churches were also spaces where cadavers defied decay naturally, like it happened in the small town of Vác, Hungary.
During the 20th century, several charismatic persons – representing a certain political ideology – were preserved by mummification as well, namely Eva Peron, Lenin and Mao.
Mummification is not a thing of the past – the techniques and rituals are just as alive today as they were in the previous centuries, but they have changed: the religious group Summum embraces traditional Egyptian mummification, while plastination is done for aesthetics, anatomical and medical study and cryonics for achieving a chance to immortality. The bibliography of this chapter included several great scientific papers and books.
Mummies in medicine and art – tissues of preserved human remains were considered as having healing properties for centuries; is our use of cadaver heart valves another form of medicinal cannibalism?
Current methods in mummy research – X-ray, CT, molecular biology, keratin isotope studies are just some of the techniques used to research and sometimes restore the discovered mummies.
Mummies and the media – this section included two chapters on movies and children’s books about mummies – I had no idea they were so many!
Mummies from all over the world – focused on Germany’s museums, this final section shows examples of mummies from all over the world that are locally exhibited.
I didn’t find this book translated into English anywhere, which is a pity.It provides lots of details on the technical aspects of preserving the dead. Unlike most books on mummification, it also included a chapter on mummification as done today – namely by plastination and cryonics.It is full of graphical images and I especially liked its last section – one can plan an interesting holiday in Germany if interested in the subject – which I am about to do soon!
The book can be found on Amazon or at your local library.
Happy reading!
