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Listen to the Recreated Voice of a 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy [2020]
Smithsonian ^ | January 24, 2020 | Meilan Solly

Posted on 09/05/2021 1:31:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

In the nearly 200 years since his mummy’s arrival at the Leeds City Museum in northern England, an ancient Egyptian priest named Nesyamun has slowly but surely revealed his secrets.

Employed as a high-ranking priest and scribe at the Karnak state temple in Thebes, Nesyamun performed rituals filled with both song and speech. Active during the turbulent reign of Ramses XI, who served as Egypt’s pharaoh between 1099 and 1069 B.C., he died in his mid-50s, likely due to a severe allergic reaction, and suffered from ailments including gum disease and heavily worn teeth. And, as evidenced by inscriptions on his coffin, Nesyamun hoped his soul would one day speak to the gods much as he had in life.

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports fulfills the 3,000-year-old priest’s vision of the afterlife, drawing on CT scans of his surprisingly intact vocal tract to engineer an approximation of his voice. The sound bite, created with a speech synthesizing tool called the Vocal Tract Organ, reconstructs “the sound that would come out of his vocal tract if he was in his coffin and his larynx came to life again,” says study co-author David Howard, a speech scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, to the New York Times’ Nicholas St. Fleur.

The clip itself is brief and vaguely underwhelming, capturing a single vowel sound media outlets have described as “resembl[ing] a brief groan,” “a bit like a long, exasperated ‘meh’ without the ‘m,’” “a sound caught between the words ‘bed’ and ‘bad,’” and “rather like ‘eeuuughhh.’”

(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; egypt; godsgravesglyphs; mummies; nesyamun
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To: SunkenCiv

Ancient spirits of evil,
transform this decayed form to
Mum-ra the ever living.😋


61 posted on 09/05/2021 5:56:18 PM PDT by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: Paperpusher

Or any Democrat you could name.🤔


62 posted on 09/05/2021 5:57:32 PM PDT by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: SunkenCiv

it’s actually surprising to me. I’d expect a 50yo to have a deeper eeehhhhh but it sounds more like a juvenile eeehhhhh after being asked to mow the lawn

remarkable, but I think the scientists had to have been pretty stoned to think this experiment up. :-p


63 posted on 09/05/2021 8:14:25 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
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To: Salamander

I broke out in laughter as well. All that build up and it’s “meh”.


64 posted on 09/05/2021 8:18:11 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Why that’s AMAZING!
I can’t believe they can reconstruct that from 3,000 years ago.


65 posted on 09/05/2021 8:28:38 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Leave me alone, I have no incriminating evidence on the Clinton’s )
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To: blueplum
I think the technology has a way to go. One way in IMHO would be to build a replica of a living person (such as the researcher) and work out the mechanics.

66 posted on 09/05/2021 8:29:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Jonty30

“Luke, I’m am your father”


67 posted on 09/06/2021 12:48:31 AM PDT by Eddie01
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To: SunkenCiv

Reminds me of something my grandfather said just before he died...

heaaaa!


68 posted on 09/06/2021 12:52:09 AM PDT by Eddie01
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To: Eddie01
When I go, I want to go quietly in my sleep, like my grandfather did -- not screaming, like the other people in his chariot.

69 posted on 09/06/2021 8:27:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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