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Scientists show how Egypt's King Tut looked
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-11 16:53
Using a skull shape determined by hundreds of recent CT scans, three groups
of researchers have independently produced busts showing what Egypt's King
Tutankhamen probably looked like on the day of his death some 3,300 years ago.
A computer-generated picture of the ancient
Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen released by the Egyptian Supreme Council for
Antiquities May 10, 2005. Three teams of artists and scientists from
France, the United States and Egypt, working separately, used modern
forensic techniques to reconstruct the young Pharaoh's face.
[Reuters] |
The three images show the
19-year-old boy-king as a rather delicate young man with chubby cheeks, an
unusually shaped head and a receding chin.
"In my opinion, the shape of the face and skull are remarkably similar to a
famous image of Tutankhamen as a child, where he is shown as the sun god at dawn
rising from a lotus blossom," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's
Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The efforts show that the science and techniques of forensic reconstruction
can be a useful tool for reconstructing the likenesses of people who lived long
ago, he said.
The work was based on sophisticated CT scans of the mummy taken this Jan. 5
in his tomb at Luxor in the Valley of the Kings. CT scanning, typically used for
medical diagnoses, can be used to produce three-dimensional images.
An undated photo of Zahi Hawass, chairman of
Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, inspecting the mummy of the
ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen before a Computed Axial Tomography
(Cat Scan). Three teams of artists and scientists from France, the United
States and Egypt, working separately, used modern forensic techniques to
reconstruct the young Pharaoh's face.
[Reuters] |
Those scans showed that Tut was a
healthy, well-fed young man at the time of his death and yielded no evidence of
foul play.
Some archeologists have speculated that Tut was killed by a blow to the head,
possibly by Aye, the commoner who ruled Egypt as regent while Tut was growing
up. The scans did show that one leg had apparently been fractured shortly before
his death, and it is possible that death resulted from an infection or a fat
embolism caused by the break.
The National Geographic Society arranged for plastic skulls to be produced
based on 1,700 CT scans of Tut's head and provided one each to forensic
anthropologist Jean-Noel Vignal of the Centre Technique de la Gendarmerie
Nationale in Paris and anthropologist Susan Anton of New York University. Vignal
was told the skull was Tut's; Anton was not.
Egyptian researchers created their own skull.
Each of the three groups then used conventional techniques to build up layers
of muscle, fat and skin based on the racial characteristics exhibited by the
skull.
The French then went one step further. Anthropological sculptor Elisabeth
Daynes of Paris made a plaster mold of the clay sculpture and used it to produce
a silicone cast. She inserted glass eyes, meticulously implanted hair and
eyelashes, and even added jewelry and makeup appropriate for the period. Skin
tone was based on the average shade of modern-day Egyptians.
The three representations are similar overall, although the Egyptian
formulation has a stronger chin. The shapes of the bridge of the nose and the
ears differ because those cannot be accurately determined from the skull.
"In my opinion, as a scholar, the Egyptian reconstruction looks the most
Egyptian, and the French and American versions have more unique personalities,"
Hawass said.
The reconstructions will be part of the exhibit of Tut artifacts that is
coming to Los Angeles on June 16.
Hawass said his team is in the process of obtaining CT
scans of all Egypt's royal mummies. When those mummies are subsequently
displayed in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization now under construction
in Old Cairo, each will be accompanied by a similar reconstruction to show what
they looked like. 
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