Discovery Channel Unwrapped: The Mysterious World of Mummies

Each mummy is an encyclopedia: A tooth can tell you when they were sick, a hair, what they ate, an x-ray can tell you how they died and CAT-Scans are what we use for the details. Sometimes they reveal that the embalmers weren't always very careful… But in some degree they've all cheated time, so secrets are what they would whisper… if they could whisper. The well-known author of two excellent popular presentations of current Egyptology, Bob Brier skillfully gives voice to his objects of affection: mummies from Asia, Europe, and South America. Brier also shows us how mummies fascinated people in all times and places and have been incomparable source materials for medical, scientific, and religious history. Brier is certainly the right person to present this show since he has a genuine talent and enthusiasm for palaeopathology–the study of ancient human remains. His own research has culminated in the mummification of a modern human, on view in the series. Brier offers insight on mummy-making in ancient Egypt, ancient Peru, and in the Soviet Union, where V.I. Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was mummified and became a national icon. Ground zero for our knowledge of mummy preparation in Egypt is the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt ca. 450 BCE and described in detail three methods of mummification available in different price ranges. Despite Hollywood's portrayal of mummies, there's no need to think of them as stalkers from an ancient land, Brier assures us. Yes, some certainly were buried alive, murdered, sacrificed, but they're not out for revenge on anybody in our time. Relax, get to know a few mummies, and you'll assuredly find a familiar figure, even make a friend.