Written in Bones—How Human Remains Unlock the Secrets of the Dead

Very comprehensive... an informative and fun read.
-- Canadian Society of Forensic Science

An excellent survey of the postmortem identification and interpretation of human remains.
-- Science Books and Films

Human remains have much to tell us about how our ancestors lived and died, what they believed, and the rituals that were important to them. In Written in Bones, a team of international forensic anthropologists and archaeologists examines important case studies of human remains found at archeological sites around the world. Comprehensive text and color photographs describe how the remains were analyzed using modern scientific techniques and how the data were assembled to create authentic pictures of ancient cultures.

The book is organized in five chapters: A Way of Life, Natural Deaths, Deliberate Deaths, Burials, and Mummies and Mummification.

Some of the astonishing discoveries covered are:

• A Han Dynasty aristocrat preserved in an unknown red liquid
• Bog bodies in Europe
• The riddle of Tomb KV55, where a male body was found inside a female coffin
• The headless men and giant wolves of a Mesolithic cemetery in Siberia

The seven new cases in this revised edition include:

• The Silk Road Mummies
• Early European Farmers
• Mummies and Modern Medicine
• Infant Deaths in a Roman brothel

Called "grisly, gross and utterly compelling," Written in Bones is used as a text in archaeology and anthropology courses around the world. It is sure to find an audience among a wide variety of readers.

Paul Bahn, Ph.D. studied archeology at Cambridge University. For this book he worked with a team of 16 contributors from universities around the world. His numerous books, written alone or with a co-author, include Ancient Places, Images of the Ice Age, Journey through the Ice Age and The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology.