Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations

Told through both fictionalized scenarios and nonfiction reportage, Kean’s (The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science) latest takes readers on a compelling high-stakes ride through multiple places and times in history. The focus is on experimental archaeology, a field whose practitioners use evidence found at archeological sites to recreate the environments and ways of life of ancient peoples. Experimental archaeologists often take a first-person approach to history by aiming to experience the ancient world themselves: hunting animals using primitive tools that humans might have crafted thousands of years ago, making mummies, and even sailing the seas on boats they’ve built using historical techniques. Kean’s book begins in Africa 75,000 years ago and takes readers through history until 1500 CE in Mexico. Along with the plentiful illustrations, his fictionalized narratives of the ancient world immerse readers, making them feel as if they are stone-knapping in a cave or hunting a giant sloth.