Catalogue of the Hrdlicka paleopathology collection

of the great storehouse of material remaining from populations such as the ancient Egyptians. Many thousands of skeletons survive as well. The dividing line between mummy and skeleton is not sharp. Most mummies are poorly preserved, often consisting almost wholly of skeletal material inside the wrappings. Similarly, dry desert environments frequently preserve some soft tissue in addition to skeletons, in burials where no deliberate attempt at mummification has been made. Well-preserved mummies are a diminishing resource. Unwrappings decrease their number further. But what is impressive, in this book and from work published elsewhere, is what modern radiography can do non-destructively, and what histology, biochemistry, and serology can show from small quantities of mummified tissue. Could these techniques not be used to survey larger numbers of mummies without unwrapping them, to investigate small samples extracted with minimum damage, and to study the far larger collections of less completely preserved human remains? Simon W. Hillson Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Lancaster