X-Raying the Pharaohs

Abstract

A simple project, the right men, time and the funds could hardly fail to result success, you would think. dentition of ancient Nubians, its relation to diet and health, and such genetic links as the teeth can afford, have lain the Nile Valley for generations and had already had some attention from Elliott Smith, the English anatomist. He did, fact, X-ray the mummified body of Thutmosis IV, but this isolated study required expansion, and 1966 the Michigan School followed up the Aswan Dam excavation work under Nicholas Millet-some 5,000 skeletons of ancient Nubian origin were studied. These were all lower class, and Harris was in on the dental aspects of the project. What of the upper classes? Giza and Thebes had small collections, but Harris was determined to examine the royal mummies and this splendidly produced book is the result. study must have produced more than we read here-mostly a re-hash of Egyptian history with a few X-rays of mummy heads to titillate the orthodontic appetite. I t is scientific, but only just and, had your reviewer not met the great American anthropologist, Krogman, Heathrow one morning whilst reading the book, this review would have been a pretty scathing one. Where are all the scientific, orthodontic, genetic records-the details Harris and Weeks must have reported back to their sponsors? Krogman knows more than the book tells In a supplementary volume-to be published later. When? Soon, says Krogman. We look forward to it, for we have most of us read all this before. Page 2 1 gives the clue: The pictures that follow indicate the breadth of the information that may be gained from a study of the X-rays of the pharaohs and their court. Come to look at that sentence again: what are the last three words doing there? Keith Simpson