Ancient Egyptian Forum

[Osiris II]

I get two papers, both the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the L.A. Times. This morning, they both had stories and pictures of reconstructions done by and American, an Egyptian and a French Egyptological team. The reconstructed head will be featured in the Tut exhibit that opens here on the 17th of June. I was going to post the pictures, but they won't copy. You can see them at:
www.latimes.com and www.presstelegram.com
They are amazingly similar to the famous head of Tut on a lotus flower taken from his tomb.
As the CT scan showed us, he was a normal, health young man who, for some unknown reason, died in his teens.

[Google]

[the_tutness_is_here]

This also goes in-depth for the likeness of Tut. It literally popped into my face in my AOL news flash ^_^; In my opinion, the 3 Tuts kind of look different, but not by much. But it's an interesting read, and the pictures are awesome! ^_^ Take a look:http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050511112509990002&ncid=NWS00010000000001
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[Osiris II]

Those are the same pictures that the newspapers both used, but it's better on your site--they can be compared more.
He seems to have been a good-looking young man. Quite a difference from the much-published photos of his mummy.

[the_tutness_is_here]

[Osiris II]

Here is the best example I've seen of the three reconstructions together. The shape of the skull, while quite pronounced, is natual, and not the result of binding, experts say.
All three are very good, but the French version shows the more life-like image.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050510/ap_on_sc/king_tut

[the_tutness_is_here]

I quite agree with you on the French one--it's like looking at a living Tut, indeed. ^_^ And thanks for the article. It's great to see how imagination and science work together.
But I am curious about this statement:

"...Hawass is leading a five-year project to scan all of Egypt's known mummies — including royal mummies now exhibited at the Cairo Museum. Eventually, each mummy will be displayed alongside CT images and a facial reconstruction.

"For the first time, we will make these dead mummies come alive," Hawass said."

I'm wondering who's next to "Come alive", as Hawass so proudly puts it? ^_^;

Oh, and I thought THIS pic was funny!

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/sc/051005kingtut/im:/050511/481/xan10305111137 Heheh...it looks like the men are drooling or something like that.
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How does it FEEL to lose the one who understood you the MOST? He died to protect you, and YOU were supposed to protect HIM. What a shame...

[Osiris II]

This link is not to the picture I wanted, though. It's the article that appeared on CNN, and is very interesting reading. The picture I wanted to post is one that I received in an e-mail, and shows the three heads together for comparison of the work done by the different crews. I though it would copy, but obviously it didn't. Sorry!

[the_tutness_is_here]

Heh...it's ok! I saw all three artworks on my AOL news page! ^_^ It's all good! I love comparing all three portraits, though. ^_^;
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How does it FEEL to lose the one who understood you the MOST? He died to protect you, and YOU were supposed to protect HIM. What a shame...

[Lostris]

Anyway, I prefer the French version.

But I saw the mummy's face in book - didn't he like the famous footballist Ronaldinho? LOL big teeth, long face and so on...
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[Tadukhipa]

I like the French version, though it looks very similar to the Discovery channel reconstruction from a while back. For some reason though (even though this is probably not realistic) I still picture him like he is on the death mask.
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[Sphynx]

I like the French the best. . . but I still like the death mask. There's just something about that death mask that's just. . . . when you look at it, it sorta grips you.

Yes xD I realize I'm crazy
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[Baketaten]

Does it bother anyone else that the French reconstruction looks so, well, French? I'm not one of those Sheikh Anta Diop Afrocentric crackpots - in fact, I'm not even black - but I'd be willing to bet that Tut was not quite so fair-skinned. Nor can I figure out why the French team made him beardless, even though he was well past puberty at death. I went to the L.A. museum show, and all these black people were standing in front of the French reconstruction photo, shaking their heads. The show did have a cool bronze model of Tut's platycephalic skull that people could touch.

[nileqt87]

actually...tut was not black. in fact, many of the ancient egyptians had blonde and red hair. what you see now in egypt is a mostly arab that happened circa 700 ad. alexandria has some greek/roman influence and the south has nubians...but the ancient egyptians before they were mixed and their genetics got diluted were actually a rather white bunch.



yuya (father of queen tiy--mother of ankhenaten--the marfan's syndrome pharaoh) and thuya (great-grandmother of tutankhamen) were both BLONDE! hatchepsut was blonde. all in the 18th dynasty. the 19th dynasty seemed to have a lot of red heads, including ramses II.

The mummified remains of numerous pharaohs and common folk from this first great Egyptian civilization have unmistakable White features, while the first written reference to blond hair is made on an Egyptian wall painting of the daughter of the famous pharaoh Cheops, Queen Hetep-Heres II, who is identified specifically by her blond hair.

tutankhamen's items have also a significant amount of nubian and semitic enemies he is shown fighting. he was not nubian (who were actually mostly seen as slaves of the egyptians--the only black dynasty of egypt was the 25th--the end) nor arab (being that they didn't come in until 700 ad).



so it is therefore correct that tut is shown a bit on the paler side.

being that his relatives were blondes, nefertiti certainly wasn't dark-skinned as seen by the bust that was made as a guide for artisans so she wouldn't have to sit in while she was sculpted, rather than official sculpture, therefore why it looks rather different and more lifelike than other depictions of her. not to mention hatchepsut's long blonde hair and rather european anthropologic features. these early dynasties were certainly not nubians, nor arab.

and the chemical mummification argument about it changing their hair falls flat with the "ginger" man at the british museum that was buried in the sand before mummification was started--when the dryness of the desert did the trick. this guy had red hair too.

“The tomb of the wife of Zoser, the builder of the first pyramid in Egypt, has a painting of her showing her with reddish-blond hair.” (‘The Ra Expeditions’, Thor Heyerdahl, Garden City, Doubleday, 1971, p.249)

"A funerary mask with the attributes of the goddess Isis shows a vivid blue-green color of eyes.” (‘A General Introduction to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum’, London, Harrison and Sons, 1930, p.49)

“The mummy of the wife of King Tutankhamen has auburn hair.” (‘Tutankhamen, The Golden Monarch’, Michael Carter, N.Y. 1972 p.68)

“Red-haired mummies were found in the crocodile-caverns of Aboufaida.” (‘Remarks on Mr. Flinders Petries Collection of Ethnographic Types from the Monuments of Egypt’, Henry George Tomkins, Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Vol. XVIIII, 1889, p.216)

“A blond mummy was found at Kawamil along with many chestnut-colored ones.” (‘L'Aryen, Sa Vie Sociale’, De Lapouge, G. Vacher,. Paris, Pichat, 1899, p.26)

“Amenhotep III's tomb painting shows him as having light red hair.” (‘Ancient Egypt, Discovering its Splendors’, National Geographic Society, 1978 p.103)

“An Egyptian scribe named Sakkarah around 2500 B.C. has blue eyes.” (‘Life of the Ancient Egyptians’, Eugen Strouhal, Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1992, p.53)

“A common good luck charm was the eye of Horus, the so-called Wedjat Eye. The eye is always blue, and the word "wedjat" means "blue" in Egyptian. Queen Thi is painted as having a rosy complexion, blue eyes and blond hair.” (‘Races Humaines de la Vallee du Nil’, E.T. Hamy, Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris, 1886, p.739)

“Paintings from the Third Dynasty show native Egyptians with red hair and blue eyes.” (‘Historia del Arte Vol III’, Jose Pijoan, Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1932, plate XI)

“The god Nuit was painted as white and blond.” (‘Le Nil et la Societe Egyptienne’, H. Champollion, Marseille, Musee Boreby, 1973 p.94)

“A painting from Iteti's tomb at Saqqara shows a very Nordic-looking man with blond hair.” (‘Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Ancient Egypt’, Wolfhart Westendorf, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1968 p.65)

[ankhesenamun 3s]

you know if you put chemicals in your hair and go into the blazing sun it will change colors. and not just white have blue eyes my black grandmother has blue eyes and my hair when i am in the sun turns bloneish by cusion has red hair. and to put it in short wirds egyptians were not white. it is proven just by the bible alone. noah had three sons one whit one orintel and one of africa. they slpit apart and took up beiffrent land. ham was whom the egyptian came from along with others in africa. and as for the slaves every peoples in africa were slaves to some one else it was the way of the erra. and nuit to me has always been shown with the egyptian wig. and egyptian eyes the charmes the eye brows were blue too. the egyptians were african and thats all we know for fact no one can really say what they were for sure but. someone please clear it up that they were not white.
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[Osiris II]

There's been more than enough said on this board concerning the color of the ancient Egyptians. But for clarification...
The Egyptians were not a white race, per se. Since pre-dynastic times, they have been a mixture--more light-skinned in the North, darker --including Black--the further South.
Blonds and red-heads are not unknown in Semetic races--the Phonecians were well-known as a light skinned, light haired society in ancient times.
A statement saying Tut's wifes mummy had red hair is puzzling--her mummy has not been discovered.
During the later dynasties, ithe Egyptians of the Delta were mixed, racially, with the lighter skinned Canaanites and those peoples in Mitanni. Then influences from Greeks, Persians, and Romans were typical. With all of these races, lighter skin, red hair and blond hair were not unknown.
I really don't understand our concern with the color of the Egyptians. Obviously, they themselves didn't worry about it at all!