Manchester University Press

Mummified explores the curious, unsettling and controversial cases of mummies held in French and British museums. From powdered mummies eaten as medicine to mummies unrolled in public, dissected for race studies and DNA-tested in modern laboratories, there is a lot more to these ancient remains than first meets the eye.

This book takes you on a journey from Paris to London, Leicester and Manchester, from the apothecaries of the Middle Ages to the dissecting tables of the eighteenth century, and finally behind the screen of today's computers, to revisit the stories of these bodies that have fascinated Europeans for so long.

Mummified investigates matters of life and death, of collecting and viewing, and of interactions - sometimes violent and sometimes emotional - that question the essence of what makes us human.

Reviews

'Who would have thought that Egyptian mummies are alive and well all around us? Angela Stienne's book helps us to see the ancient mummy in the brown paint of gallery paintings, in anatomy lectures, even in modern discussions of race and ethnicity. This brilliantly written book proves that the mummy has reawakened within our own social spaces as a material link between past and present. A must read.'
Kara Cooney, Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art & Architecture, University of California Los Angeles

'Mummified is a refreshing take on ancient Egyptian human remains. Inviting readers to reflect on and question the history behind the modern Western fascination with "mummies", it will help museum visitors see them as human beings rather than objects of display.'
Dr Heba Abd el Gawad, Egypt's Dispersed Heritage Project, University College London

'A compelling, captivating and complete book: it takes us on a journey through which we discover, enchanted, what it is about Egyptian mummies that has captured our imaginations and the imaginations of those who preceded us.'
Dario Piombino-Mascali, Research Professor in Anthropology, Vilnius University

'Stienne's book is important because it takes seriously the perspective of the observer rather than attempting to reconstitute the ancient person. This results in some fascinating and genuinely insightful reflections on the reception of the ancient Egyptian dead in museums.'
Dr Campbell Price, Curator of Egypt and Sudan, Manchester Museum

'This rather unusual book is a very personal exploration of a major ethical and philosophical study. [...] The author explores the history of the displacement of ancient Egyptian individuals, always treating each as a real person.'
Ancient Egypt magazine

Foreword by John J. Johnston
Prologue
Introduction: The mummy
1 The mummy as medicine, the mummy in medicine
2 The displayed mummy, the displaced body
3 Mummies buried in a garden, and other incidents
4 The mummy's foot
5 Mummies unrolled
6 The White mummy
7 The (White) mummy returns
8 The mummy of the future
Epilogue

Index

Author

Dr Angela Stienne is a cultural historian, museum researcher and storyteller. In 2016 she created the website Mummy Stories, which aims to reshape the discussion around human remains in museums by collecting people's stories of their own encounters.