They’re digitally raising the dead.
Scientists put the “animation” in “reanimation” after virtually reconstructing the face of a mysterious mummy who lived 1,500 years ago, as detailed in the journal “Anthropologie – International Journal of Human Diversity and Evolution.”
Known as the gilded lady because of her golden headdress, the mummy belonged to a woman who lived in Roman-occupied Egypt and died in her 40s, possibly of tuberculosis, authors postulated.
“It is a delicate, youthful-looking face,” study lead author and Brazilian graphics designer Cicero Moraes told Pen News of the recreation, which he carried out in collaboration with an international team of scientists.
The figure’s visage is sleek with short, curly hair, not unlike a modern social media profile. She also had a slight overbite and lumps of resin that were likely inserted during mummification to improve odor.
In order to preserve the remains, the authors never unwrapped the cadaver, which is currently housed at Chicago’s Field Museum, per a release by the American Museum of Natural History.
However, they did a CT scan of her corpse for the first time in 2011, which allowed them to map her body like a form of corpus cartography.
The team then used this same technique to unveil a face — a process that was facilitated by the mummy’s remarkable state of preservation.
“Initially, we reconstructed the skull, based on the computed tomography [a method that uses X-ray technology to produce images of the body’s inside], and later adjusted the position of the jaw,” recalled Moraes. “The skull allows us to design structures such as the nose, ears, eye position, lip limits and others, using data measured in tomography scans of living people.”
In addition, the forensicist said, “we use measurements carried out using ultrasound, also on living people, to find out the thickness of the soft tissue in different regions of the skull.”
Due to the gilded lady’s origins in Roman-occupied Egypt, the team approximated her dermal girth using corresponding data from modern European women aged 40 to 49.
They then adjusted the face and skull of a “virtual donor” to match the parameters of the gilded lady, ensuring that it was structurally compatible.
Scientists completed this facial recreation by cross-referencing all the data and projecting it onto her virtual visage.
As the color of her skin is unclear, scientists engineered both a color version and one in grayscale to avoid making assumptions about skin tone.
Interestingly, they didn’t have to go to great lengths to recreate other seemingly perishable traits during this digital autopsy. The woman’s curly hair was remarkably intact, again owing to the preservation methods.
“She reminds me of my mother-in-law in some ways!” joked Moraes. “During the process, I showed it to some family members and they all agreed.”
While scientists have yet to put a name to the digital face, her method of burial suggests that she was “a middle-class individual,” according to Cicero’s co-author Michael Habicht of Flinders University in Australia.
Most importantly, the case illustrates how scientists can use CT scans to glean insight into a mummy’s appearance, age, and other vital info without desecrating the deceased.
“Scans like these are noninvasive, they’re repeatable, and they can be done without damaging the history that we’re trying to understand,” said David Hurst Thomas, curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the study.
