‘Some people called it horrifying’: ‘Dinner with King Tut’ author on using Egyptian mummification techniques on a modern-day human body

Most archaeologists spend time digging in the dirt or piecing together broken artifacts or bones in a laboratory, attempting to understand the past in a painstakingly slow process. But others use that information — and a little ingenuity — to recreate the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of ancient societies through an exercise called experimental archeology.

In his book “dinner with king tut: How rogue archaeologists are recreating the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of lost civilizations” (Little, Brown & Company, 2025), author Sam Keane Experimental archeology delves into the overloaded sensory world of practitioners. Along the way, he learns to wield a stone tool like never before homo sapiens did, created an intricate hairstyle that would make a Roman woman proud, tattooing someone using ancient toolsplay one aztec ball gameAnd bake the kind of sourdough bread that King Tut once ate.