Egyptians weren't the first to mummify their dead. Travel back through time and to the other side of the world to see how South Americans have been mummifying their dead since 5000 BCE. Learn how one of the most famous historical personalities has been made into a mummy this century.
In this episode we explore the dark world of human sacrifice and how mummies can tell us about the world they lived in and how they died. Apart from telling us about the parasites that nearly every ancient Egyptian carried inside their bodies, mummy scientists are also making major discoveries about modern day diseases like Spina Bifida.
This final episode looks at the last taboo: death. Bob Brier shows how our endless fascination with mummies and horror movies stems from our inability to directly confront our own mortality. However, this is only a recent phenomenon and Bob leads us around the many 'Galleries of the Grotesque' of the last few centuries.