What did King Tut look like?

Posted in Graphics, Science by Elliott Back on May 11th, 2005.

They’ve finally figured out what the boy-king Tutankhamen looked like, based on 3D CT x-ray scans of his corpse:

Tutankhamen is believed to have died at the of 19 from an infection of his recently-broken leg over 3,300 years ago. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, led a team to do the reconstruction for National Geographic. The resulting forensic recreations, as shown above, were validated by comparing them with an American team who was given only the data, and not even that the subject was Tutankhamen. Here is the bust they produced:

Since my comment thread has exploded into a flame war over the Caucasian or light-skinned features of the reconstruction, I will simply point you to the bust of Nefertiti, a period sculpture contemporary to King Tut. Belief that King Tut or the Egyptians conform neatly to modern monoracial bias is unreasonable in a scientific or social light.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 at 3:03 pm and is tagged with supreme council of antiquities, king tutankhamen, bust of nefertiti, flame war, 3d ct, x ray, egyptians, caucasian, reconstruction, national geographic, corpse, bias, sculpture, king tut, belief that, egypt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

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bob 1 week ago 2 points
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This is not a good source go to:http:
//www.king-tut.org.uk/life-of-king-tut/tutankhamun-timeline.htm

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Phish 3 years ago 1 point
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This is fascinating. Didn't the egyptians believe that he was a god?

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http://go.com

JJ 3 years ago 1 point
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Sure yea he might look like that (A bit big headed) but that doesn't answer my question of how he died??? So how did he?

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shay 1 month ago 1 point
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people believed that king tut died by his step mother,heshepsut because she wanted to still be pharoh. Because before king tut was crowned king she diskiced herself as a man to take place of her nephew.

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http://eliottback.com

phoenix 3 years ago 1 point
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he has a pretty big head

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corbyn 3 years ago 1 point
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he looks like a bald girl with a big nose.

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6256 3 years ago 1 point
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it is fasinating, any clue how they recreated him like that?

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chantell 3 years ago 1 point
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i really seriously do NOT! the THink that that is what king tut looked like NOT NOT NOT!

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http://www.elliotback.com

aqueelah 2 years ago 1 point
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she is right it looks nothing like the statues and paintings of king tut, which depict him quite differently. but it is what i expect from a bunch of well....you can fill in the rest. I contest that the ancient people what sculpted, painted and hand crafted images of tut while he was alive are more accurate than those created today by individuals who are known to have biasis and nationalist agendas. I have been studying ancient egyptian culture since the age of 9, now working on a bach in Anthropology. I guess you can say im credible but crediable doesnt mean much these days. do some studying and judge for yourself i guess, just look at what the ancients thought he looked like.

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Sushiii 2 years ago 1 point
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cool.. it looks like a girl
no offense.
i need to write about him for my project.
maybe i will use that picture or a better one that doesn't look like a girl
he looks sooo cool

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alyssa 2 years ago 1 point
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I think that it really looks neat.It makes it look real. It really makes you wonder is that really what he looks like. I hope that it is what he looks like but, I know we won't get to know because it happened a long time ago.

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Island Groove 2 years ago 1 point
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Strange he kinda looks like Boy George to me and very WHITE too WHITE for someone who lived in the desert, forensic sculptors use certain measurements and guidelines to determine race from skulls my understanding of this recreation is that it was one of a few that were made by more than one artist each artist was given a copy of his skull to work with some knew who they were recreating others did'nt I would love to see some of the other results to see how they resembled or differed from this version Egypt had both black and white dynastys thoughout their history so there was a good racial mix back then I dont think this is an honest portrayal at the very least I think he might have been olive skined but certainly not white, so I am afraid I have to agree with Ms Aqueelah when she says that this was "created today by individuals who are known to have biasis and nationalist agendas".nuff said, peace

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Rarney Blubble 2 years ago 1 point
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Nationalist agenda?. Maybe but his skin tone isn't outside the boundaries of that found in current Egyptians. I personally think he would probably be darker. But if you look at the famous statue of Queen Nefertiti, pharoah Ahkenatens wife, he's pretty close. The ancient Egyptians were multi racial: Cleopatra was a Greek and member of the Ptolemy dynasty set up after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, Rameses the Great had long straight red hair, Amenhotep III one of the greatest of pharoahs in terms of art and public works had black African features and Ahkenaten the probable inventor of monotheism looked like an alien freak. There were times when Egypt was conquered by Semitic people for example the Hittites as well as people from Kush (Sudan) who were also used as mercenaries by many pharoahs so there was some mixing going on. Tuts head is malformed due to Egyptian standards of beauty. They like many cultures were into head shaping, ie binding the babies head soon after birth to create a "pleasing" shape.

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Ashley 2 years ago 1 point
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I think this is a fine model of what Tutankhamen must have looked like. To answer anyones questions about his death, it has been scientifically suggested that King Tut died of a leg injury which caused gangrene to occur, which in return was the cause of his death. Most likely that it was caused his death.

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Will 2 years ago 1 point
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This is sooo fascinating! Modern science is so amazing these days. To think that they could recreate a Pharoah's face that ruled Egypt 3300 years ago!! wow

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NOTelling 2 years ago 1 point
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this looks ah-mazing!! and and people he has a big head cuz i read he had a tumar in his head but this pics is incredible!! GREAT JOB!

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Dyan 2 years ago 1 point
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I love King Tut!
Now seeing his side you he's cute!
Noone is perfect so leave his head alone.
He's white because he was KING menaig he was inside all the time not outside. From the front view he's hot!
I love his eyes!
He had no hair because men, boys were suppose to shave their hair off.
So, thank you very much.

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Jessica 2 years ago 1 point
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This is REALLY amazing. It would be nice if we could see rhe front of his face. Thats just so amazing. I have always wondered how they could do that. A computerized image. Im doing a project on tut and thats just amazing. He went to the at age 8 and died around age 17 AMAZING

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BubbleZ 1 year ago 1 point
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i think that lots of people just waste thier tim eby attempting to make someone look like they did back in the day. but these pictures are still pretty amazing

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http://elliottback.com

Valeria 1 year ago 1 point
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This is amazing! How could someone make that? It's awesome. And for all u dodo heads out there, that's the way they shaped their heads on purpose to look like royalty or stylish or something.

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AdonisThaGod 1 year ago 1 point
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lol, losers, this is what King Tut looked like:

http://dsc.discovery.com/anthology/unsolvedhist...

This is bullshit set up by white people, we all know there weren't white people in africa until recently, get cha minds right...

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Emily 1 year ago 1 point
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Actually the last post is innacurate. Royal egyptians were kept out of the sun 90% of the time. They had fan bearers and canopy holders EVERYWHERE they went! Even on chariots they had someone there to shade them. "Dark skin" or tan as we call it was considered to be reserved for the lower class peasants. Of course a young boy like tut probably had somewhat of a tan, he would appear lightskinned, not black. However there are a few pharaohs in history that were most definitely black. His grandmother (or mother some say) had blue eyes...she was from a hyksos type country who were fair skinned and light eyed.

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jrpone 1 year ago 1 point
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Hey everybody...king tut looks really cool, Im th biggest Ancient Egyptian Fan....First off Tutankhamun (pronounced TUT- AN-KHA-AMUN, NOT TUT-AN_KAMUN) was around the age 19 when he died not 17 like some idiot stated above,. second Tut was mix race and was probably had white features but in ancient art he is depicted as brown skinned or heavily tanned!!
The statement above say there were a "few" black kings of egypt...get your facts straigt friend. first off im not sayning that the Egyptian were a ALL black or ALL white civilization...That is stupid and pointless..Every Great civilization on Earth had influences of some what from different cultures..(the Romans, Egyptians, even the Chinese) any way the Ancient Egyptians had mor than a "FEW" black kings as a matter of fact antropopgy proves the ancient pre dynastic Egyptians were Negro blacks who migrated from the souhern Sahara...the religion and skulls prove it ...many believe that Narmer the uniter of upper and lower Egypt was black as well as many others Khufu, Khafre, Amenhotep 3, Tye, and many others. dont start freaking out becuse i think many important Egyptian kings were white as well...probably the greatest king of all was king Ramses the 3rd who was a tall red haired white man....any way i think the Ancient Egyptians were a mix multiracial culture with many different etnic kings and royals.

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Elliott C. Back: Technology FTW!

What did King Tut look like?

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