Mummies: A Voyage Through Eternity

by Françoise Dunand

Well-written, loaded with information, and with a rich assortment of illustrations, each Discoveries "RM" volume is a look at one facet of art, archaeology, music, history, philosophy, popular culture, science, or nature. These innovatively designed, affordably priced, compact paperbacks bring ideas to life and amplify our understanding of civilization in a new way.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Egyptology

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[J.W. Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

A decent introduction to ancient Egyptian mummies accompanied with an excellent array of photos, including many that haven't been seen before. Although a slim work, there's a lengthy section at the back of the book that collects a variety of documents followed by sections of further reading, index, and photo credits.

[Philip of Macedon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although short and not in incredible depth, this brief overview of the history and practices of Egyptian mummification packs a lot of fascinating and evocative information into its 120 pages. Despite its length it's surprising how in depth the authors manage to go. One of the real high points, as with all of these Discoveries books, is the excellent selection of photographs and illustrations that compliment the text perfectly and offer more than a description of the historical elements we read about. Many of these photos I've never seen before. I find myself opening the book after having finished it just to revisit its images. This is also what I did for Vikings: the Lords of the Seas, another book in the 'Discoveries' series.

Despite having seen mummies in museums and watched semi-informational televised specials years ago, as well as having seen numerous fictionalized representations including the 1999 Brendan Fraser box office smash hit The Mummy, it's accurate to say that 99% of my knowledge of mummies now comes from this book. It offers sufficient detail and context for most of its duration, with nice nuggets of obscure knowledge here and there and introduces the reader to many people and events they may wish to read about further.

The documents section at the end, another staple of the Discoveries books, is a really great touch, offering excerpts of some of the significant historical documents pertaining to the discoveries of certain tombs, testimonies from Egyptian graverobbers, rituals for mummification, and detailed accounts of recovering artifacts and mummies, as well as the technological advances used to study them.

[Rhonda Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and set up in a very interesting manner. Everything was organized and the different sections segued into each other nicely. I would qualify it as a little too dense for a quick read but still a rather light and easy read.

The best part, at least to me, was the final section. There it had translated excerpts from various Egyptian texts - prayers, songs, dirges. Fascinating.

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love any and everything on Ancient Egypt. This was a neat pocket guide that I could easily take with me and read while waiting in line or on quick breaks. There was a lot of good information and wonderful pictures. The only thing I didn't like was the page format, had to skip around and pictures would be randomly placed in the middle of the text. Sometimes by the time I read a snippet of words there would be a picture and then several pages of pictures and the text would pick back up. The reason I gave 5 stars was because the information was useful and the pictures were great and it seemed thorough.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small book that is packed with great information. It has some cool close-ups on mummies that I can never get enough of.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tiny little quick-read book is full of tons of information and incredible photos. A must read for anyone interested in mummies.