The Mummy Makers of Egypt by Tamara Bower (review)

In this gorgeously illustrated picture book, Bower reconstructs the funerary rituals of Yuya, the father-in-law of pharaoh Amenhotep III (and, as many young readers will want to know, forebear to Tutankhamen). The wealth of nuanced information here adds considerably to that offered by the usual cadre of mummy books, and it particularly reflects more recent scholarship concerning the lives of those who worked in the Valley of the Kings. The excellent condition of Yuya’s mummy and grave also allows for a more specific treatment of the funerary rites and tomb inscriptions. As embalmer Paneb instructs his son Ipy in the family trade, readers learn details of organ removal and the layout of the preparation site (“The bodies were dried in natron outdoors, so that the sun would help with the drying. Care had to be taken so that wild dogs and jackals did not steal parts of the body”) and preparation of grave goods such as mummified food (“a simpler process . . . as the meat had already been cleaned of the moist organs”). A substantial endnote comments on the discovery of Yuya’s tomb in 1905, an event reported to involve episodes of fainting, hysterics, and a chair endangered by the august Empress Eugénie of France. It’s light on contextual references and terms that could assist readers in their desk-bound explorations, but the story of Yuya’s final rites and the archaeological excavation of his remains is so intriguing that many readers will be willing to take the extra steps to undertake their own fact-finding expedition.