Bringing the Past Vividly to Life 

Does it sometimes seem like archaeology is as dry and dusty as those digs in the desert that you read about or see on TV? I find that the Nova series on PBS often literally puts me to sleep, unless the subject is something very dramatic like earthquakes, hurricanes, or volcanoes. There are too many scenes of scientists sitting at a computer or simply walking down the hall to their lab or trying to explain something that resists easy explanation.

Best-selling writer Sam Kean takes on this challenge in his fascinating new book “Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells and Taste of Lost Civilizations”. Available at your public library, of course. It would also make a good gift this holiday season.

Kean says, “I’ve always had a gripe with archaeology. On the one hand, it seems like the most thrilling field in science … On the other hand, whenever I actually visited an archaeological dig, I felt my shoulders sag in disappointment ... just scores of sunburned men and women dusting off broken pot chards with toothbrushes … Imagine my delight when I first discovered experimental archaeology.”

Before I go any further, let me say that it is important for archaeologists to follow time-honored scientific procedures in their research, as Kean would agree. This isn’t one of those “ancient aliens brought us civilization” type of books. Anyone old enough will remember the stir “Chariots of the Gods” by Erich Von Daniken caused backed in the 1970’s.

Kean says, “Experimental archaeology puts ideas about the past to the test, either in the lab or out in nature … Put another way, instead of just digging things up and passively theorizing about them, experimental archaeologists do things --actively re-create the past.”

The author vividly shows us how he has immersed himself in the ways of our distant ancestors from different parts of the world. Some of this, like descriptions of Egyptian mummifying, is not for the squeamish. Some of the worst parts of the past are described but certainly not to be duplicated, such as his hair-raising account of human sacrifice among the Aztec. Kean does take part in a very grueling ball game as practiced by the Aztecs, leaving him the worse for wear.

We do find out loads of interesting facts, such as that in the wild, South American potatoes were actually toxic. Early people in Peru eventually learned how to make them edible. Other fun facts: “Romans built roads – 53,000 miles of them, 6,000 more than the entire US interstate system”. Kean’s description of how Roman matrons managed their elaborate hairdos is one especially entertaining how-to section of the book. He will also guide you through making garum, the famous and pungent fish sauce the Romans served with everything. You can also learn how our very distant ancestors crafted hunting weapons such as the atlatl, in case you want to make one yourself.   

In his story-telling, Kean starts out with Africa 75,000 years ago and moves on to other prehistoric scenes thousands of years ago: South America in 7,500 BC, the first “city” in Turkey 6,500 years ago and so on, ranging from Polynesia to Rome, to California 2,000 years ago, and the Vikings 1,000 years ago. Other scenes from the past that he imagines include early settlements in Alaska, and China around the year 1200.

“No civilization in history can surpass China’s record of technological achievement,” Kean writes. “The history of Chinese technology is practically the history of modernity itself.” Yet “some aspects of medieval Chinese life seem bizarre today, even cruel.” You could certainly say that about medieval Europe as well. Human history does seem to be a tangled combination of technical achievement combined with cruelty and aggression.

“Dinner With King Tut” is really two books in one. Kean weaves in stories of fictional characters from the distant past so it reads partly like a novel, or series of short stories. This makes an already interesting book even more of a page-turner. Will the hunter in ancient times make a kill or will he be killed by a ferocious beast? How did a slave cope with her life in ancient Rome? How did the Polynesians become the best sailors the world has ever known? It’s worth reading this book to find out answers to these questions and so much more.