The Boy King

Face of King Tut recreated by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities has worked with CT scans to recreate what King Tutankhamun's face would have looked like when he was alive:

Three teams of forensic artists and scientists—from France, the United States and Egypt—each built a model of the boy pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution photos from CT scans of his mummy to reveal what he looked like the day he died nearly 3,300 years ago.

This is the first time this technique has been used to reconstruct the likeness of a mummy:

The CT scans—the first done on an Egyptian mummy—have suggested King Tut was a healthy, yet slightly built 19-year-old, standing 5 feet, 6 inches tall at the time of his death.

At least I was taller than the king of the world 3,300 years ago. It also looks like there's a new theory as to why the boy king died:

Some experts on the scanning team said it appeared Tut broke his left thigh severely—puncturing his skin—just days before his death, and the break could have caused an infection.

This is hardly the first, or the last, time someone was endangered by a skin break. I acquired cellulitis a few years ago and didn't realize I had a problem until I was in danger of going septic. Three thousand years ago they didn't have antibiotics, and it took over a month of antibiotics to bring me back from the brink.

I'm looking forward to more reconstructed pharohs in the future.

Josh Poulson

Posted Wednesday, May 11 2005 08:36 AM

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Comments

There are 9 comments on this entry.

WOW!!! I find this totally facinating! The fact that Tut was the reconstruction you chose is a plus! When the "Tut" exhibit was in New York 26 years ago, I had the opportunity to see it. Since then, I developed a strong interest in Tut and other pharos, and the archeological findings. Thank you so very much!!

Trudie

Posted Wednesday, May 11 2005 11:27 AM

That is amazing! Thanks for sharing it!

Jana

Posted Thursday, May 12 2005 09:07 AM

Is it just me, or does the Boy King look a lot like Boy George?

CT

Posted Thursday, May 12 2005 12:55 PM

I find this really fascinating. I love everything about ancient egypt and the fact that they were able to recreate King Tut's face just literally blows my mind! I hope to go on expeditions on Egypt because I would like to become an archeaologist and going to Egypt and learning about all of this is really cool. Thanks!

Carey

Posted Wednesday, Jun 13 2007 12:36 PM

I actually went to king tut's exhibit in philly about a week ago and saw this recreation of young Pharoh Tut. It was amazing, comming from someone who wants to become an Egyptologist.

Gabrielle

Posted Saturday, Jun 23 2007 10:16 PM

He looks three shades lighter than all the scultures, busts and tombs suggest! I'm sure this part of the exhibit will be a big hit in London. I thought this criminal degree of mis-representation ended with LIZ TAYLOR playing the part of colored royalty lol!

Ryan

Posted Tuesday, Jul 24 2007 06:29 PM

Excuse me? Liz Taylor playing a colored person? Cleopatra was not black!!!!!!!!! She was Macedonian! Egyptians are not black either!

Stephanie

Posted Sunday, Aug 5 2007 07:06 PM

I just love studying ancient egypt so much! I am an arab just not from egypt.I love em all.King Tut ,Queen Nefertiti, and my most favorite...CLEOPATRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jessica

Posted Saturday, Sep 1 2007 08:03 AM

No CLEOPATRA was not black, she was Macedonian but, quite a few of the Anicent Egyptians were black and some of the Kings also. The reason why they look like the way they look in the later dynaties were because they had quite of bit of a mixture come in from the Roman and Greek empires!!!!!!!!!!!. Remember The Arabs came in at a later period from Babyalon. Look at the tomb's paintings, look at the pictures, Egypt is in AFRICA! Even some of the Egyptians today are black, not all modren day Egyptians are Arabs! They even have pictures of today's Egyptians and it shows some of them that are black. Blacks are known for having larger lips, biggers noses, and other features (Even KING TUT MASK HAS BIGGER LIPS AND NOSE) you can see on Egytian artifacts and statues that can tell you that some of the earlier periods they were black. History even tell us that the great sphinx was defaced. So why the cover up? I just can't understand why it is so hard to believe that people of color had and intelligent race of ancestors. Some people need to just firgure out , read, and observe what is the truth.

Christopher W. Strahan

Posted Friday, Oct 12 2007 10:01 AM

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