Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Recreating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations

In this charming romp through the world of experimental archaeology, bestseller Kean (The Icepick Surgeon) profiles the “lab geeks” and “screwball enthusiasts” who investigate the “sensory-rich” qualities of history, from the “crab-like odor of a deer hide as you tan it” to “the salty pinch of fermented Roman fish sauce.” Among those spotlighted is researcher Lyn Wadley, who studies “the first beds in human history”—200,000-year-old cliffside ledges in South Africa constructed of “layers of ash and plant matter” and “broad leaves from the aromatic Cape quince tree.” Recreating the beds and sleeping overnight in them in a cave, Wadley and a team of volunteers discover that the ancient accommodations are not only “comfortable,” but have “a fresh, fruity odor that keeps away mosquitos.” Another group of archeologists “skin and deflesh” an elephant—one that died of natural causes—with Stone Age tools; others brew ancient Egyptian beer that turns out tasting like kombucha. The most extreme of all are Egyptologists Bob Brier and Ronn Wade, who in 1994 mummified a human corpse—one donated to science—using “replicas of pharaonic-era tools.” (Kean wryly notes that their experiments “proved controversial.”) This idiosyncratic and impressively researched account takes readers to the fringes of knowledge production, revealing along the way that there is as much art as there is science to the study of history. It’s a delight. (July)