Mummy’s tale

"Natsef-Amun was a priest and scribe at Karnak in Ancient Egypt. He lived and worked in the reign of Ramesses XI, more than 3,000 years ago. When he died his body was mummified and buried in a manner befitting his rank. During excavations in the 19th century at Deir el Bahri, near Thebes, his coffin and mummy were found and transported to Europe. The mummy was eventually purchased by a Leeds banker who presented it to the Leeds Philosophical Society whose members carried out a scientific and medical examination in 1828. This was one of the first examinations of its kind, and found a body 'in an unusually perfect state of preservation' which had been mummified in the elaborate way described by Herodotus and other classical writers." "The Leeds investigation naturally reflected the scientific limitations of the day, and when Dr. Rosalie David and the members of the Manchester Mummy Research Project were given the opportunity to perform a new examination using all the new scientific techniques available, they welcomed the chance. Using radiology, CT-scans, endoscopy and histology, serology and dental studies, a modern autopsy was performed on Natsef-Amun more than 3,000 years after his death. Using virtually nondestructive techniques, the examination team has made fascinating discoveries not only about the death of Natsef-Amun (was he strangled?) but also about his life. We find that he was in his middle forties at the time of his death, somewhat tall for the period, with a wrinkled brow and the usual shaven head of a priest." "Illustrated with dozens of fascinating photographs, The Mummy's Tale brings to life in extraordinary detail a man who was 'god's servant' in the temple at Karnak a thousand years before the birth of Christ." BOOK JACKET.