Mummies of the world / edited by Alfried Wieczorek, Wilfried Rosendahl ; [translated from the German by Lusia Ciurak ... et al. ; translation from French, GaeÌlle Rosendahl].

"This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition 'Mummies of the World', which tours selected venues in the United States from July 2010 through July 2013"--T.p. verso.

Rev. translation of: Mumien : der Traum vom ewigen Leben, catalog of the exhibition Mummies : Dreams of Eternal Life held at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, Germany in 2007, which was based on the results of the German Mummy Project. C.f. t.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-383),

Mummies : in nature and around the world. From flourishing life to dust : the natural cycle of growth and decay / Burkhard Madea, Johanna Preuss and Frank Musshoff -- Natural mummification : rare, but varied / Wilfried Rosendahl -- People from the ice / Angelika Fleckinger -- Bog bodies : preserved bodies from peat / Heather Gill-Frerking -- Mummies : a tour of the cultures. Mummies, mummification techniques and the cult of the dead in ancient Egypt : a chronological overview / Tanja Pommerening -- Animal mummies and the worship of animals in ancient Egypt / Heimo Hohneck -- Mummies in the Andean regions : the presence of the dead / Virginia and Michael Tellenbach -- Mummies from Oceania : a brief overview / Eva-Maria GuÌnther -- Mummies in Australia : a special form of aboriginal burial rites / Corinna Erckenbrecht and Heinz H. Klaatsch -- Mummies in China / Jeanette Werning -- The Altai lady and her companions : mummies of the Scythian Pazyryk culture / Barbara Kerneck -- Living Buddhas : mummies in Japan / Melanie Janssen-Kim -- Mummies of the indigenous inhabitants on the Canary Islands / Ursula Thiemer-Sachse -- Mummies in monasteries and churches : monks, popes and princes / Ina Wunn -- Naturally mummified corpses from the Dominican Church in VaÌc, Hungary / IldikoÌ Szikossy ... [et al.] -- A death -- beyond life -- Lenin, Mao, Evita / Luisa Reiblich -- Mummification today : a very modern affair / Angela Graefen and Kurt W. Alt -- Mumia and mummies in medicine and art. Mumia : from Ozokerite to cure-all / Tanja Pommerening -- Mumia vera Aegyptiaca : a western apothecary's remedy / Sabine Bernschneider-Reif -- "Mumia" and asphalt in the art of painting / Klaus JuÌrgen-Fischer -- Mummies talk : modern mummy research methodologies. Mummy insights : x-ray analysis and computed tomography / Kurt W. Alt and Frank J. RuÌhli -- Determination of mummy origins using molecular genetic analyses / Christina RuÌtze, Peter Forster and Joachim Burger -- Isotopic analysis of keratin : information about living environment and nutrition / HerveÌ Bocherens -- Chemical toxicological analysis of hair samples : evidence of narcotics in mummies, too? / Frank Musshoff and Burkhard Madea -- Infested, cursed, contaminated : microbial and chemical contamination in mummies / Jens Klocke and Karin Petersen -- Conservation of mummies : having bones to pick with the dead / Jens Klocke -- Rapid prototyping in medical technology and its application in mummy research / Arthur T. Bens -- Facial reconstruction of mummies : the example Baron von Holz / Ursula Wittwer-Backofen -- Mummies and the media. "Dead or alive? Human or inhuman?" : mummies in film / Diana Wenzel -- Mummies in print : exploring mummy books for children and young adults / Heather Gill-Frerking -- Mummies from around the world. Frankfurt's dinosaur mummy / Bernd Herkner -- Animal mummies found in lava caves in the Jordanian Desert / Stephan Kempe and Ahmad Al-Malabeh -- Natural animal mummies on exhibit at the State Museum of Natural History in Braunschweig, Germany / Ulrich Joger -- A mummified fire salamander found in a cave in the northern Franconian Alb of Germany / Brigitte Hilpert -- Animal mummies from the Eve-Maria Zimmermann Collection, Tenerife, Canary Islands / Matthias Feuersenger -- The salt mummy of a yellow-brown boxfish from Hurghada, Egypt / Matthias Feuersenger -- Dima : the baby mammoth / Doris DoÌppes -- Two unusual glacier animal mummies / Wilfried Rosendahl and Doris DoÌppes -- The bog dog from Burlage / Markus Bertling, Heather Gill-Frerking and Wilfried Rosendahl -- Bodies buried in bogs : the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands / Vincent T. Van Vilsteren -- Egyptian animal mummies : the University of Bonn Collection / Gabriele Pieke and Silke Grallert -- Interment, grave goods and eternal life in ancient Egypt : explained by objects from the University of Heidelberg / Dina Faltings -- Two child mummies and some grave goods of the Byzantine Period from the Egyptian Collection at Heidelberg University, Germany / Beatrix Gessler-LoÌhr -- Egyptian mummies : the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Collection / Wilfried Rosendahl ... [et al.] -- Egyptian mummies : the Merck Archives in Darmstadt / Sabine Bernschneider-Reif ... [et al.] -- Egyptian mummy skulls : the Marburg Zoological Collection / Jan Harbort -- The Egyptian mummies from Basel / Wilfried Rosendahl ... [et al.] -- The mummy and coffins of Nes-pa-kai-schuti / Dagmar Budde -- The "mummy" from Jena / Matthias Rupp, Sabine Birkenbeil and Sandra Bock -- An Asian mummy from the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Collection / Wilfried Rosendahl ... [et al.] -- Mummies from Oceania : the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Collection / Michael Tellenbach ... [et al.] -- South American mummies from the Ethnological Collection of Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany / Mechtild Freudenberg -- "Gray and brown" pre-Columbian mummies : the Lippisches Landesmuseum in Detmold / Roger Meyer ... [et al.] -- Peruvian mummies from DeleÌmont, Switzerland / Anna-Maria Begerock ... [et al.] -- Mummies from South America : the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Collections / Wilfried Rosendahl ... [et al.] -- Mummies found in the Dominican Church in VaÌc, Hungary / IldikoÌ Szikossy, Lilla Alida KristoÌf and IldikoÌ Pap -- Mummies from Palermo / Dario Piombino-Mascali ... [et al.] -- The mummies from Sommersdorf Castle / Manfred Baron Von Crailsheim -- Historical mummies of human fetuses at the Kassel Museum of Natural History / Jana Mesenholl, Kai FuÌldner and Wilfried Rosendahl.

The book reveals not only many of the techniques that ancient cultures used to preserve the bodies of the dead, but also the many natural processes leading to the preservation of bodies in desert sands, ice or acidic bogs, or even in attics. Nearly thirty scientific essays, with outstanding photographs and illustrations, bring together the latest research in mummy studies, with contributions from archaeology, anthropology, palaeopathology, biology and many other disciplines. With dignity and reverence, this volume shares the hidden information contained within the mummies.