Dinner with King Tut Explores the Wild World of Experimental Archaeology

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Science writer Sam Kean joins Science Quickly to explore the hands-on world of experimental archaeology—where researchers don’t just study the past; they rebuild it. From launching medieval catapults to performing ancient brain surgery with stone tools, Kean shares his firsthand experiences with re-creating the techniques and technologies of long-lost civilizations. His latest book, Dinner with King Tut, dives deep into these wild experiments and the things they have revealed about how our ancestors lived, worked and ate. Recommended reading: Scientists Used Prehistoric Tools to Build a Canoe, Then Paddled Across 140 Miles from Taiwan to Japan Denmark’s Radical Archaeology Experiment Is Paying Off in Gold and Knowledge Dinner with King Tut, by Sam Kean; Little, Brown, 2025 Sam Kean’s website Join the #SciAmInTheWild photography challenge for a chance to win a one-year Unlimited subscription to Scientific American—plus an exclusive bundle of gadgets and gear to level up your next adventure. See the rules for entry here. Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check the show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:49.3	Experimental archaeology takes a hand-on approach to understanding the past.
0:58.0	Instead of just studying ancient objects, researchers actually recreate them.
1:03.0	They build 30-foot medieval catapults, perform ancient surgeries with stone tools,
1:09.0	and prepare authentic Roman banquets with techniques
1:12.6	so traditional not even your nono would recognize them.
1:16.6	The goal is to understand not just what our ancestors made, but how they meet it, and what it felt
1:21.6	like to live in their world.
1:23.6	Our guest today is Sam Keane, a science writer who's written seven books. His latest is
1:28.8	called Dinner with King Tut and it explores the world of experimental archaeology. He's
1:33.7	tried his hand at everything from ancient brain surgery to mummifying a fish and he's here
1:38.8	to tell us all about it. Thanks so much for coming on to chat today. Thanks for having me.
1:43.3	So what exactly is experimental
1:46.6	archaeology and how did you get interested in it? Experimental archaeology involves doing things.
	...

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