The world’s most famous Egyptian had large eyes, a prominent nose, and a rounded forehead.
The June cover of National Geographic magazine reveals the face of King Tutankhamun on the day he died. Under the leadership of Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt s Supreme Council of Antiquities, National Geographic used the Siemens CT scan data of
The world’s most famous Egyptian had large eyes, a prominent nose, and a rounded forehead.
These are among the findings by three forensic teams on the physical makeup of Pharaoh King Tut. The American team was headed by NYU anthropology professor Susan Antόn, director of the masters program in physical anthropology and joint-editor of the Journal of Human Evolution.
The researchers used a CT scan of Tut’s mummified remains to reconstruct his head and face. Antόn’s team, which included Bradley Adams of New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, did not know the identity of the remains when it conducted the reconstruction. The Egyptian and French teams were provided this information.
Despite lacking the identity of the remains, Antόn and Adams accurately concluded the person was as male, 18 to 19 years old (Tut died at age 19), and of African ancestry. Armed with these conclusions, artist Michael Anderson of the Yale Peabody Museum then created a fleshed out’ image of the boy king and cast it in plaster.
The complete study appeared in the June edition of National Geographic.
(American reconstruction) Also using the CT data, an American team created a likeness of Tut working “blind” without knowing the identity of the subject. They quickly determined that the “mystery” person had been male, age 18 to 19 years, of African ancestry, possibly North African all uncannily accurate. The likeness they created closely resembled that of the French team. The work was directed by Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and National Geographic magazine.
Tut 04 / Credit: Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt and National Geographic magazine, June 2005
(French reconstruction) Using CT data from scans of Tut made in January, a French team worked with National Geographic magazine to create a model of Tut’s skull, which then was turned into an accurate, likelife face by one of the world’s leading anthropological sculptors, Elisabeth Daynes of Paris. Her flesh-toned silicone cast was embellished with realistic glass eyes, hair, eyelashes and even the eye makeup that adorned the king as he was in life. French, American and Egyptian teams, under the director of Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, each created a separate reconstruction of Tut’s face.
Tut 02 / Credit: Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt and National Geographic magazine, June 2005
(French reconstruction) Using CT data from scans of Tut made in January, a French team worked with National Geographic magazine to create a model of Tut’s skull, which then was turned into an accurate, likelife face by one of the world’s leading anthropological sculptors, Elisabeth Daynes of Paris. Her flesh-toned silicone cast was embellished with realistic glass eyes, hair, eyelashes and even the eye makeup that adorned the king as he was in life. French, American and Egyptian teams, under the director of Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, each created a separate reconstruction of Tut’s face.
Tut’s head, scanned in .62-millimeter slices to register its intricate structures, takes on eerie detail in the resulting image. With Tut’s entire body similarly recorded, a team of specialists in radiology, forensics, and anatomy began to probe the secrets that the winged goddess of a gilded burial shrine protected for so long.
Inside King Tut’s subterranean burial chamber, against a backdrop of murals, Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, removes padding to reveal the young pharaoh’s remains.
