- LONDON (Reuters) - A high-tech
facial reconstruction has shed new light on the looks of King Tutankhamun,
the teenage king of ancient Egypt immortalized for nearly a century by
his golden death mask.
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- Scientists and special effects artists in Britain and
New Zealand used digital techniques applied in crime investigations to
fashion a fiberglass model they say provides the closest possible likeliness
of the pharaoh's looks.
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- The cast of Tutankhamun's head, which went on display
for four weeks at London's Science Museum on Monday, bears little resemblance
to his golden death mask.
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- Unlike the famous face of the slight, heavy-lipped youth
framed in a pharaoh's headdress, the model shows a wide-faced young man
with high cheekbones, smaller eyes and a heavy brow.
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- "I think people will be surprised it's quite a different
looking face. But it's quite realistic given the technology used,"
said a Science Museum spokeswoman.
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- The reconstruction team was forced to use X-rays taken
in 1968 for its impression of the 18-year-old's looks because the mummified
head of Tutankhamun was too dried and sunken to give life-like dimensions,
she said.
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- Dr. Robin Richards, a facial rebuilding expert from University
College London, scanned the features of people of the same age, sex, build
and ethnic group as Tutankhamun to create an approximation of skin type,
which was wrapped onto the 3D digital skull.
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- New Zealand special effects artists fleshed out the skull
with eye color and skin pigment, and sculptors then created the finished
product out of clay, casting it finally in fiberglass.
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- The tomb of King Tutankhamun, a boy king who ruled Egypt
in the 14th century BC and died mysteriously at a young age, was discovered
by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.
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- It was packed with artifacts that took almost 10 years
to remove from the site.
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