Title:

Dinner with King Tut

Author:

Sam Kean

Category:

Non Fiction

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

July 30, 2026

am Kean likes archaeology but finds the painstaking work of unearthing pottery shards from dirt to be a bit boring. Kean is more interested in how our ancestors lived. In his book, Dinner with King Tut : How Rogue Archaeologists are Re-Creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells and Tastes of Lost Civilizations, Kean embarks on a quest to discover more about how humans in early cultures lived their lives. Kean uses eleven chapters to explore eleven different eras. In each chapter, he consults with an "experimental archaeologist" or two who is trying to recreate how previous generations lived and worked. Kean enthusiastically joins in on these endeavors, trying his hand at various tasks. Kean also writes a short historical story to illustrate how a person might have lived (or died) in each particular era. I thought the stories were well done, Kean might have a career writing historical fiction should he chose to go that route.

Africa - 75,000 years ago - in the first chapter, Kean's short story describes a tiny tribe on the brink of starvation. A young hunter, Kayate, must venture out solo on a expedition for desperately needed meat. Anything edible would be acceptable - antelope, elephant, ostrich - but the African plain is a dangerous place, the potential prey is wary and there are other predators around. Kean tries his luck at the art of "knapping" - which is the creation of stone tools (blades, points, scrapers) by carefully bashing them with another rock held at just the right angle. It is not an easy skill, which gives Kean new appreciation of the talents of our distant forebearers.

South America - 7500 BC - this is again a story about a hunter in dire need of food. Asana is trying slay some vicunas to bring in meat, when she encounters a strange girl from a coastal tribe. Humans have invented the altalt, a spear-throwing tool that greatly increases the range and power of a thrown spear. A tool like this might explain how humans were able to wipe out the mega-fauna on all of the continents except Africa (in Africa, humans evolve alongside the elephants, hippos and rhinos, and so those animals had a chance to adapt to the increasingly aggressive humans.) Kean tries making spears and casting them with an altalt, but he fails to strike the stationary target.

Turkey - 6500s BC Çatalhöyük is thought to be the first human city. The buildings have no doors or windows, the only entry was through a hole in the roof, which also served as the chimney. Kean finds them to be incredibly smoky. Kean's story for this chapter is about Darga, a forty-year old woman who wishes to continue the odd custom of burying the relatives' bones inside her house. Her brother, Alev, is dead, and Darga must bury his bones, but Çatalhöyük's thug won't let her. In this chapter, Kean tries to tan the hide of a dead deer, starting with a freshly dead animal. The individual steps involve all sort of gross operations (who thought to implement each of these steps?) but in the end do result in supple, beautiful hide.

Egypt - 2000s BC In this historical tale, Amon, the royal brewer-baker, gets involved in a tense grave robbing scenario. Kean gets involved in baking bread using the same techniques that the Egyptians used (and it took an army of bakers to feed the tens of thousands of workers who constructed the pyramids). Kean also tries Egyptian brewing - did you know that hops were not added to beer until the Middle Ages? Kean meets up with a pair of scientists who take a human body (donated to science) and mummify it using the same techniques as the ancient Egyptians. Finally, Kean talks with an amateur Egyptologist who tries to disprove the theory that the Egyptians hoisted those giant stone blocks to the top of the pyramids by building huge, temporary ramps. The amount of material required to build such a ramp would have been an inconceivable 4x the amount of material in the great pyramid itself.

Polynesia - 1000s BC Kean talks about the gigantic ocean-crossing "canoes" that the Polynesians sailed across the vast Pacific Ocean to find and colonize tiny islands. Kean describes some of the subtle techniques the Polynesians used to find their way over a seemingly trackless ocean. Kean tries pounding tree bark to create tapa, which the Polynesians used as cloth. He learns how to crack open coconuts.

Rome - AD 100s Kean's story describes a slave girl (half of the Roman population was slaves) in the service of an ambitious woman who wants to become a priestess. Unfortunately, the story takes place in Pompeii, so the reader can guess the ending. Kean investigates Roman cement, and Roman road building techniques, and marvels at how excellent their engineering was. He also meets someone who has discovered how to replicate the large, outlandish hairdos that are depicted on Roman statuary - it turns out that the Roman's sewed the elaborate towers of hair into place.

California - AD 500s Kean tells us of Nadu, a hunter/gather living in California. Acorns are an important source of nourishment, and different tribe guard their oak trees. Nadu decides he might please his pregnant woman, Hembem, by bringing her acorns to eat. Kean gathers up acorns and tries to grind them into flour himself. It doesn't go well. Kean also discusses tattooing, and even goes so far to get his own tiny tattoo (an asterisk) in the name of science, just to understand the process. Kean also tries wielding a war club (by smashing watermelons instead of heads).

Viking Europe - AD 900s Kean imagines a monastery besieged by Vikings. The Viking cannot get at the monks within. Inside, Ciarin-the-leech (doctor) is tending to the abbot and decides that he needs to gather some herbs to create a healing medicine. He knows a secret way out - but is he secretive enough? In this chapter, Kean talks about bog-bodies (and other artifacts preserved in their depths, including big hunks of butter!) Kean tries to recreate ancient medicines based on onions and garlic, to see if they will actually kill any bacteria (not that anyone knew about bacteria in 10th century Europe.) Kean also tries trepanning - which is the practice of drilling holes in the skull to alleviate the pressure on a swollen brain. Kean practices on a deer head, and then a pig head, with predictably challenging results.

Northern Alaska - AD 1000s Kean's story is about Amaruq, who lives with her tribe in the arctic region. They survive by eating raw meat - there is little fuel available for cooking; and besides, cooking ruins the vitamin C that is available in raw animal flesh. Kean learns how to render blubber in oil, which has a hundred uses to the Inuit. Kean also experiments making small clay pots, which turn out to be ideal for heating up small volumes of water using a minimal amount of fuel oil.

China - AD 1200s Kean invents a story about General Jiaolong, a eunuch, and his alchemist, Jabir. Today his army marches against the city of Gung. Kean tells us all about eunuchs and the surprising power their wielded in the Chinese court. Kean learns about trebuchets - ancient siege machines that could hurl huge boulders against a city's defensive walls. Kean takes part in a demonstration of a reconstructed trebuchet, and appreciates its frightening power, even if it isn't especially accurate.

Mexico - AD 1500s Kean introduces us to Huehmac, a prisoner of the Aztecs. The Aztecs ritually butchered their captives, ripping out their still-beating hearts on an altar atop their pyramids. Huehmac hates the Aztecs, he belongs to one of nearby tribes that the powerful Aztecs have long oppressed. So great is his hatred of the Aztecs, that Huehmac and his tribe have allied with the Spanish conquistadors, even while recognizing that the Spanish themselves are evil. Kean tries cooking corn using the same process that the Aztecs used, called nixtamalization, which releases different proteins from the kernels during cooking. Kean also tries to play the infamous Aztec ballgame ullamaliztli, in which players were only allowed to hit the rubber ball with their hips. The loser in these games was often sacrificed to the gods. Kean also fires a cannon similar to the ones the Spanish possessed. It is remarkably ineffective (and dangerous to fire), but it is loud and it terrifies the native troops.

In conclusion, I thought Kean did a marvelous job illustrating these different cultures and how people might have lived in them. None of the various cultures sounds remotely appealing - doing anything seems incredibly hard with uncertain outcomes. It is fascinating to imagine those distant times as Kean describes them, but I am quite content to enjoy my 21st century life.