Face of King Tut’s grandmother is reconstructed using her 3,400-year-old remains
A photoshop artist has reconstructed the face of Queen Tiye, King Tut’s grandmother, using her 3,400-year-old mummified remains.
The artist used the technology to overlay features such as eyes, a nose and a mouth onto the statue, and fit them into her remarkably well-preserved bone structure.
They then added hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and even freckles, bringing the corpse’s face to life.
The end result was a beautiful woman with dark, wavy hair, big brown eyes, a heart-shaped mouth, and a dark complexion.
Queen Tiye was the great royal wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned from 1390–53 BC, and lived from 1398 BC. to 1338 BC.
She was the mother of Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten, and remained a prominent figure of the Egyptian royal family even after he ascended the throne.
Akhenaten continued with father Tutankhamun, or King Tut, the boy king who ruled from 1332 to 1323 BC.
He became pharaoh when he was only eight or nine years old, and is famous today because his tomb is the most intact royal Egyptian tomb ever found.
Queen Tiye’s mummy was discovered in 1898 in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings, but DNA analysis confirmed her identity until 2010.
Photoshop surgeon used an image of Queen Tiye’s mummified remains to reconstruct what she might have looked like
The Photoshop Surgeon, a digital artist who performs “dramatic enhancements and radical transformations to photographs,” revealed what the face of King Tut’s grandmother, Queen Tiye, may have looked like using an image of her remains.
The video shows the artist working with Photoshop, which shows a photo of Queen Tiye’s mummified face.
They started by placing the eyes in the recessed eye sockets, blending the skin around the eyelids, and then moved on to her nose which was carefully added to fit the bone left behind.
The artist added long, curly brown hair to match the hairline on her scalp and filled the brow bone with small pieces of hair.
They also added more skin to Queen Tiye’s face, creating a fuller look as she once looked.
The artist also included her mummified hand that lay on her chest, but revived it, revealing wrinkles around the knuckles and nails on her fingertips.
Queen Tiye was the daughter of Yuya, commander of the Egyptian chariot, and an Egyptian woman named Thuya. She had no royal blood, but nevertheless her husband favored her among his many wives and often involved her in state affairs.
Her name even appeared with the king’s on official documents.
The artist has overlaid features such as eyes, a nose and a mouth, alongside hair, eyebrows and eyelashes to reveal the above result
Queen Tiye’s mummy was discovered in 1898 in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings, but DNA analysis confirmed her identity until 2010
Queen Tiye’s remains were discovered in 1898 by French archaeologist Victor Loret, but it would be another century before experts realized who they belonged to.
Loret discovered two female mummies among a number buried in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings – the burial place of almost all the pharaohs of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties.
Before they were identified, these mummies were called ‘The Elder Lady’ and ‘The Younger Lady’.
Initially, experts thought that ‘The Elder Lady’ may have been Queen Nefertiti, who ruled during the 18th Dynasty as the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, the son of Queen Tiye.
But a lock of hair found in a small chest with an inscription bearing the name Queen Tiye turned out to be an almost perfect match to the hair of ‘The Elder Lady’.
And in 2010, DNA analysis confirmed that the remains belonged to the daughter of Yuya and Thuya, Queen Tiye’s parents.
Queen Tiye died somewhere between the ages of 40 and 60.
Scientists have also reconstructed the faces of King Tut and his father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, showing that they had similar features.
Scientists used a skull discovered in the Valley of the Kings nearly 100 years ago to piece together the appearance of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who reigned from 1353 BC to 1335 BC.
The digital image shows a man in his early 20s with a long jaw and piercing eyes, along with a skull shape and pointed nose similar to King Tut’s.
She was the mother of Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten, and remained a prominent figure of the Egyptian royal family even after he ascended the throne. Depicted is a facial reconstruction of Akhenaten
Akhenaten continued with the father of Tutankhamun, or King Tut, the boy king who ruled from 1332 to 1323 BC. The photo shows a reconstruction of what King Tut may have looked like
The digital image of Akhenaten was created by the Forensic Anthropology, Paleopathology, Bioarchaeology Research Center (FAPAB) in Sicily, which used a skull from a mummy discovered in 1907.
Akhenaten married one of his sisters who gave birth to their son, but as a result of the incestuous relationship, Tutankhamun was born with numerous health problems that experts say led to an early death.
And a reconstruction of his face and body gave the world a glimpse of the ailments he may have suffered.
King Tut had buck teeth, a club foot and girlish hips, according to the most detailed study ever of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s remains.
And rather than being a boy king with a penchant for chariot racing, Tut relied on walking sticks to get around during his reign in the 14th century B.C., researchers said.
A ‘virtual autopsy’, consisting of more than 2,000 computer scans, was carried out in combination with a genetic analysis of Tutankhamun’s family, which supports evidence that his parents were brother and sister.
The scientists believe this left him with physical limitations caused by hormonal imbalances. And his family history could also have led to his untimely death in his late teens.