Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists are Re-Creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations
Sam Kean
Little, Brown and Company
Copyright 2025 by the author
Janet Stephens was killing time at the Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore. A professional hair stylist, she became intrigued by the hairstyles depicted on their collection of Roman statuary. Could she re-create them? Using modern techniques with pins and bobbins didn’t work. Reading the archaeological experts didn’t help; they were a mess of contradictions and impossibilities. Clearly, none of them had ever styled hair before. She’d have to figure it out herself, even if it meant going back to the original sources. Google Translate would make up for her lack of Latin.
Deep in the annotations on one text, she found the key. A term was defined as “a needle for cloth making and hair styling”. Those complex arrangements of braids were not pinned in place; they were sewn. Now Stephens could re-create any Roman hairstyle with ease.
Stephens is one of those “experimental archaeologists” that Kean visits in this book. People on the outside of the usual fields, bringing the past to life.
Yes, Archaeology is a great and worthy field of study. Tracking the movements of ancient peoples, figuring out what they wore, ate, the tools they used… All important. But how much natron do you need to mummify a human body? What does the Roman fish sauce “garum” actually taste like? Can you really butcher an elephant with stone tools?
Kean visits people who are recreating all these old things. Not always out of scientific curiosity, but also to help keep their cultural identity alive. And some of those old techniques show promise for our current world. A Medieval recipe for a healing ointment really does seem to have significant anti-bacterial properties, for example. Kean doesn’t just watch and listen; he actually tries his hand at many of the various crafts and techniques.
Each chapter is built around a fictionalized account of a person from a particular era in the past to illustrate the things Kean is examining. That’s pretty much the whole purpose of these “rogue archaeologists” – turn the past from artifacts and data into a real story. One that will attract more people to the field – or at least get them interested in Ancient History.
A good deal of it is just “cool”. Busting open a coconut on a wooden stake. Knapping a hunk of obsidian into a blade as fine as a surgical scalpel. Keeping with the “dinner” aspect in the title, Kean tries a LOT of “old style” foods. I wouldn’t mind trying muffins made with acorn flour – but I’ll draw the line at the cuisine of the Arctic. I’d love to try firing a trebuchet, though.
Kean refers to his website for additional information, including photos. I’m posting the link here, just in case it’s still active.
Pure Blather 