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Ancient Egyptian mummy's face reconstructed with 3D printing
www.ibtimes.co.uk ^ | August 31, 2016 13:38 BST | By Léa Surugue

Posted on 08/31/2016 10:54:36 AM PDT by Red Badger

The face of an ancient female Egyptian mummy has been reconstructed with the help of 3D printing and forensic science techniques, an important step to better understand who she was. Other crucial details about her health have also been gathered, completing the picture.

This reconstruction was only made possible due to the work of a multi-disciplinary team led by scientists at Melbourne University, combining medical research, forensic science, computerised tomographic (CT) scanning, 3D printing, Egyptology and art.

It all started when Dr Ryan Jefferies, curator at the University's Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, stumbled across the skull of the mummy, which had been forgotten for decades. How it became a part of the Museum's collection remains a mystery.

Jefferies was concerned the remains could be decaying from the inside, but with no way to verify this first-hand, he ordered CT scans to be carried out.

The 2000-years-old mummy, a woman around the age of 25-years-old, was given the name of Meritamun – the "beloved of the god Amun". She underwent the scans at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, which revealed that the skull was still in extremely good condition.

The scientists then decided to go further, recognising that beyond the conservation value of the scans, there was a great forensic research opportunity. "The CT scan opened up a whole lot of questions and avenues of enquiry and we realised it was a great forensic and teaching opportunity in collaborative research,"Jefferies stated.

The researchers decided to combine different disciplines to see if they could learn more about Meritamun, and whether they could even get a glimpse of what she looked like alive.

Who was Meritamun?

This face has been reconstructed by scientists from the remains of an Egyptian mummyPaul Burston/Courtesy of Melbourne University

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The scientists initially gathered as much information as possible about the mummy. From the structure of the bones, Meritamun's gender was confirmed. She was in all probability a woman, as markers such as the smallness and angle of the jaw, the narrowness of the roof of her mouth, and the roundness of her eye sockets indicate.

The CT scans also revealed an interesting feature: she had important tooth decay. "We were able to see that Meritamun has abscesses all around the teeth and gum. This would have caused her a lot of pain and may have impacted her overall health", forensic Egyptologist Dr Janet Davey, from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, explained.

She also notes that the mummy's eyes sockets had been filled with artificial eyes, a common practice of ancient embalmers to make sure the person looked in death as closely as possible to what he or she looked like in life. One of the next steps of the research will now be to determine even more precisely when the mummy lived — the scientists will soon conduct radiocarbon dating of the bones to find out.

From a skull to a feminine face

3d printing was used to model the skull of the mummyVarsha Pilbrow and Gavan Mitchell/ University of Melbourne

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But it is really the process of reconstructing the face which has been a novel experience for the scientists. After 140 hours of printing time on a simple consumer-level 3D printer, the complete skull was reproduced based on the information shown on CT scans. Then, sculptor Jennifer Mann was called in to use her forensic and artistic skills to reconstruct Meritamun's face.

Her method involved attaching plastic markers to the printed skull to indicate different tissue depths at key points on the face, based on averages in population data derived from modern Egyptians, and then applying clay.

Although the face may only be an approximation of what Meritamun looked like, the multidisciplinary method and the fact Mann has obtained good results in the past when reconstructing the faces of unidentified victims suggests we now have a good idea of the mummy's appearance in life. A feminine face, peering at us from History.

"By reconstructing her we are giving back some of her identity, and in return she has given this group of diverse researchers a wonderful opportunity to investigate and push the boundaries of knowledge and technology as far as we can go", Davey concluded.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: 3dprinting; ancientautopsies; egypt; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; meritamun; mummies; mummy
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To: Red Badger

No genetic indication of incest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ENVF6qwIc


21 posted on 08/31/2016 12:30:24 PM PDT by Leep (Cut the crap!)
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To: Little Pig

“After all, don’t the race hustlers go on and on about how Egypt was really an “African” kingdom?”

It was, for like 50 years or something when the Nubians took over. This mummy, being from 2000 years ago, would have been of the Ptolemaic line, so basically a Greek.


22 posted on 08/31/2016 12:42:45 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: ClearBlueSky

nah...THIS girl is pretty


23 posted on 08/31/2016 12:56:43 PM PDT by SMARTY ("What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self. "M. Stirner)
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To: Red Badger

Paging Bill Clinton...


24 posted on 08/31/2016 1:00:44 PM PDT by ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton (Go Egypt on 0bama)
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To: Red Badger; All

Actually, I’ve seen this technique used on true crime documentaries, then seen pictures of the actual person. They can get very close to the person’s actual appearance. In some cases, if they have a little hair to go by, they can get the hair color right, and sometimes even eye color.

When police find a skeleton of an unidentified person, the skull is all they have to go by, so some experts quite a while ago developed the technique of reconstructing the face with clay, based on standard measurements of skin thickness at different points on the face and head. they have standards for each race, caucasian, black, oriental, etc.

They use rubber standoffs attached to the artificial skull at certain points, add clay to the level of the original skin, do some artistic shaping of the clay, add eyes, and start painting it.

The end result is incredible, almost always very close to what the person actually looks like, and the nose, lips and ears are usually very close as well. You can look at the reconstruction and then a picture and you’re looking at two views of the same person, with very minor differences.


25 posted on 08/31/2016 6:01:44 PM PDT by Paleo Pete (Never take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.)
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To: Red Badger; dware
Note: this topic is from 08/31/2016. Thanks Red Badger.
5) 'Meritamun' (possibly circa 1st century BC) -- Researchers (from multiple faculties) at the University of Melbourne have combined avenues like medical research, forensic science, CT scanning, and Egyptology, to recreate the visage of Meritamun ('beloved of the god Amun'), an Ancient Egyptian noblewoman who lived at least 2,000 years ago. And the interesting part is – the scientists only had access to Meritamun's mummified head, which on analysis alludes to how she met her demise at a young age of 18 to 25.

10 facial reconstructions from history you should know about | Dattatreya Mandal | January 11, 2017


10 facial reconstructions from history you should know about | Dattatreya Mandal | January 11, 2017

26 posted on 04/23/2018 6:51:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: SunkenCiv

Well, that’s wrong.

All ancient Egyptians were black.

Farrakhan said so................


27 posted on 04/23/2018 6:53:01 AM PDT by Red Badger (Remember all the great work Obama did for the black community?.............. Me neither.)
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