Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt

Definitely a must have book to add to your bookshelf!, I highly recommend to any who loves Egypt history.

The premise of this book is very good: give an introduction to a relatively obscure subject such as non-human mummies from Egypt so that reaers can decide for themselves if they want to learn more about it or consider their learning experience concluded. But as it often happens, the plan did not survive its encounter with reality. This book is actually a collection of essays, so one will go into it fully expecting quality to be variable. The parts written by Salima Ikram (the editor) and Edda Bresciani are actually rather good, nothing to say about them. But the rest of the essays... they feel like they have been rushed into print after only the most basic editing, if there has actually been any editing. But the worst part is probably the longest essays are written in such bad English they make an already mediocre reading experience feel like wading waist-deep through fresh cement. So if you like your reading experience to be laborious and sleep-inducing boring, this is the book for you. Otherwise stay clear of it.

So interesting. Fast delivery.

Ikram is sensational. The diversity of information found in this book is wonderful. The book is an excellent source for animal cult studies and animal mummification with color photos and multiple illustrations.

Some are interesting; at least one is downright boring. But what bothered me was the 2nd chapter where Ms Ikram details the mummifying of several rabbits, bought live but killed solely for her experiment. Had I know this was detailed in the book, I most likely wouldn't have bought it. I've had bunnies as pets for over 25 years & am also a vegetarian for at least that long. I didn't enjoy reading about how her rabbits were strangled, exsanguinated, & eviscerated in preparation for mummification.