Scientists discovered that the elongated skull of the pharaoh was not the result of artificial deformation and, moreover, the volume of the pharaoh’s brain was much larger than that of an ordinary person.
Pharaoh Tutankhamun is one of the most famous rulers in ancient Egyptian history. His reign was marked by a return to the old gods after the failure of the new cult of Aton proposed by his father Ehnaton. What this young pharaoh looked like, however, remains a subject of debate to this day.
But now a new approximation of the face gives an idea of what the pharaoh looked like, revealing new insights into some of the pharaoh’s most unusual facial features. Pharaoh Tutankhamun, is the most famous ruler in ancient Egyptian history. Although much has been written about the royal youth, who occupied the throne from about the age of 9 until his death ten years later, around 1323 B.C. his real appearance is still the subject of controversy.
Tutankhamun’s skull was slightly longer than the average human skull, and a new study has found further evidence for this conclusion. Not only did he have a uniquely shaped head, but he also had an extremely large brain volume, especially compared to the skulls of ordinary Egyptians of that period, skull scans of which were also available in the research database.
The brain volume of the average person is approximately 1,234 cubic centimeters, while that of the pharaoh was 1,432 cubic centimeters.
To make a three-dimensional image of Tutankhamun’s face, the international research team used existing CT (computed tomography) scans of the mummy’s full skull. They also used X-rays and skull measurements taken by archaeologists.
“His skull has a particular shape; in our study, the measurements showed similarities with skulls that have undergone [artificial skull deformation, but this does not apply to Tutankhamun (!), because although he has a similar elongated shape, everything indicates that he is his natural skull,” reported Cicero Moraes, one of the scientists involved in the study.
“Interestingly, the structure of his skull differs from the characteristics of other Egyptian mummies present in our database.”
The researchers created two approximations of the face. The first was an “objective” grayscale image showing the pharaoh with his eyes closed in a neutral position. The second, a painted version that offers the “necessary elements for full humanization,” depicts a young man with a shaved head and a dark skin tone with eyeliner, as it was at the time, according to the study.
Thus, the new approximation of Tutankhamun’s face reveals the unique features of his skull and brain, and provides insight into what this historical figure might have looked like. This is an important step in the study of ancient Egyptian history and culture.
Scientists in their role, finding out that all the stories of their colleagues that the elongated skulls of the pharaohs (and there were many of them, not just one Tutankhamen) are the result of artificial deformation (how many dissertations were written about it and money was spent), so, all these scientific statements do not correspond to reality. Pharaohs were not just different from ordinary people, they were really OTHER.
For example, when studying the mummies of their Faythakh (dating back to 6000 BC), it was found that the skin cells of the mummies were so different from human skin cells that it could only be the result of crossbreeding between different species – terrestrial and some other.
So what were the pharaohs?
Or rather – where did they come from on Earth?
