The Scientific Study of Mummies by Arthur C. Aufderheide is a book for serious students of mummies. All you have to do is take a look at the price and you'll know whether you are up to the commitment that this book requires. But, believe me, the book is worth every penny. Over 600 pages long and stuffed with photos (many taken by Aufderheide himself, which means that many are unusual and rare photos), the book presents Aufderheide's life work (he is a professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota Duluth). For that reason alone, it is a must-have book, since it touches on virtually every type of mummy, research related to these mummies, and mummy-study issue. This is essentially the first comprehensive book (more like a textbook perhaps) on the subject of mummy studies as a discipline.

What will draw many readers to the book is Chapter 4: The geography of mummies. In this 214-page chapter, Aufderheide attempts to catalog every type of mummy ever found (intentional and accidental). Like the good professor that he must be, he surveys the territory geographically and occasionally digresses, offering in-depth information about a variety of lesser-known mummies (John Paul Jones, for example, or the freeze-dried mummies of Arctic balloonists or sugar mummies or catacomb mummies). This chapter also provides a well-organized account of Egyptian mummification (he discusses the sociohistorical and mummification features of each time period). If you want to know more about almost any type of mummy, this chapter will serve you well. The only problem is that a few mummies seem rather slighted (a prime example is Ötzi the Iceman) but this may simply reflect the fact that Aufderheide never worked on the Iceman (he has first-hand research knowledge of most other mummy types). 

Other aspects of the book will impress, too:  

Chapter 1, for example, presents the history of mummy studies from prehistoric hunters (who "dissected their prey both as part of the butchering process and also for magic-religious purposes such as sacrifice or divination") to Renaissance dissections (which served to increase "understanding of disease through study of pathology") to the Napoleonic conquest of Egypt (which also included 100 scientists, responsible in part for studying mummies) to the present emphasis on mummy studies as an interdisciplinary pursuit. 

Chapter 2 identifies the reasons that societies practiced intentional mummification: enhancement of royal authority in a theocracy (the Incas and the Egyptians), personal or population status and/or security (Egypt), war trophies (the Jivaros, the Sausas), regulation of spiritual force of the deceased (the Aleuts). 

Chapter 3 covers the mechanics of mummification, including the decay process. Aufderheide reports on seven aspects of the mummification process including desiccation, thermal effects, chemical effects, anaerobiasis, and excarnation (or defleshing). All are illustrated with well-selected photographs. Particular good is a section on the history of modern embalming. 

Chapter 7 discusses intentional and accidental animal mummies. Again the good professor fills in the minor details and provides an interesting account of the horse Comanche as well as various dogs and even crabeater seals. 

Other chapters offer detailed technical information most suitable for scientists, researchers, and museum curators. What young researchers will find particularly helpful is Aufderheide's outline of a mummy autopsy protocol (pp. 331-334). 

The book ends with an excellent chapter on the use and abuse of mummies. Aufderheide covers the mummy as drug; as loot; as display; as paper; as fuel; as commercial product; as curse; as deception; as neglect; as a political or religious implement; as language, literature and film. This is as good a summary as you will find anywhere.

In one last brief paragraph, Aufderheide discusses the mummy as science. He writes:

information extracted from mummified bodies can and has been very useful for the reconstruction of both the cultural and the health status of past populations. The anthropological information about prehistoric peoples helps us to understand ourselves today, while the biomedical data these mummies supply tells us how the diseases we presently suffer have evolved. The former can help us in the shaping of our present and future behavior, while the recognition of how environment and human behavior influenced specific diseases in the past may provide clues to control of present and future affrications. In summary, such knowledge is unique and relevant.

Of course, his entire book proves this very science and makes it an invaluable reference work for anyone interested in the subject of mummy studies.

Highly highly recommended!