Dinner with King Tut
How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations
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4.4 • 12 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER | INDIE BESTSELLER | The New Yorker's Best Books of 2025 | Smithsonian's Top 10 Science Books of the Year | Washington Independent Review of Books's 51 Favorite Books of 2025 | Amazon's Best Books of the Year | Longlisted for the Non-Obvious Book Awards
From “one of America’s smartest and most charming writers” (NPR), an archaeological romp through the entire history of humankind—and through all five senses—from tropical Polynesian islands to forbidding arctic ice floes, and everywhere in between.
Whether it’s the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past looked like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? The frenzied plays of an Aztec ballgame...and the chilling reality that the losers might also lose their lives?
History often neglects the tastes, textures, sounds, and smells that were an intimate part of our ancestors’ lives, but a new generation of researchers is resurrecting those hidden details, pioneering an exciting new discipline called experimental archaeology. These are scientists gone rogue: They make human mummies. They investigate the unsolved murders of ancient bog bodies. They carve primitive spears and go hunting, then knap their own obsidian blades to skin the game. They build perilous boats and plunge out onto the open sea—all in the name of experiencing history as it was, with all its dangers, disappointments, and unexpected delights.
Beloved author Sam Kean joins these experimental archaeologists on their adventures across the globe, from the Andes to the South Seas. He fires medieval catapults, tries his hand at ancient surgery and tattooing, builds Roman-style roads—and, in novelistic interludes, spins gripping tales about the lives of our ancestors with vivid imagination and his signature meticulous research.
Lively, offbeat, and filled with stunning revelations about our past, Dinner with King Tut sheds light on days long gone and the intrepid experts resurrecting them today, with startling, lifelike detail and more than a few laughs along the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this charming romp through the world of experimental archaeology, bestseller Kean (The Icepick Surgeon) profiles the "lab geeks" and "screwball enthusiasts" who investigate the "sensory-rich" qualities of history, from the "crab-like odor of a deer hide as you tan it" to "the salty pinch of fermented Roman fish sauce." Among those spotlighted is researcher Lyn Wadley, who studies "the first beds in human history"—200,000-year-old cliffside ledges in South Africa constructed of "layers of ash and plant matter" and "broad leaves from the aromatic Cape quince tree." Recreating the beds and sleeping overnight in them in a cave, Wadley and a team of volunteers discover that the ancient accommodations are not only "comfortable," but have "a fresh, fruity odor that keeps away mosquitos." Another group of archeologists "skin and deflesh" an elephant—one that died of natural causes—with Stone Age tools; others brew ancient Egyptian beer that turns out tasting like kombucha. The most extreme of all are Egyptologists Bob Brier and Ronn Wade, who in 1994 mummified a human corpse—one donated to science—using "replicas of pharaonic-era tools." (Kean wryly notes that their experiments "proved controversial.") This idiosyncratic and impressively researched account takes readers to the fringes of knowledge production, revealing along the way that there is as much art as there is science to the study of history. It's a delight.
Customer Reviews
Experimental Technique
Dinner With King Tut is another captivating book authored by Sam. He changed his style a bit for this one by combining fiction and nonfiction. Short stories, written for each time period, were supported intermittently by his research. It was a refreshing touch. The only disappointment I had with it was finding out some of his research took him to Kent State University. That’s right in my backyard. I would loved to have met him and verbally extend my appreciation for all his good works.