The Face of King Tut
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
(© Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt and National Geographic Society, 2005)
Using a skull shape determined by hundreds of recent CT scans, three groups of researchers have independently produced busts showing what Egypt's King Tutankhamun probably looked like on the day of his death about 3,300 years ago.
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 Tutankhamun 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 constructing the likenesses of people who lived long ago, he said.
The work was based on sophisticated CT scans of the mummy taken 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....
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