Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, was ”pictured” for the first time in more than 3,000 years thanks to a cutting-edge scientific reconstruction involving UK scientists.
A group from Liverpool John Moores University teamed up with colleagues from Egypt to capture the king’s features at his time of death, using a 3D model of his skull to rebuild his features.
Then, they reversed the aging process to turn back the clock almost half a century to reveal his face at the height of his powers. The result is the first “scientific facial reconstruction” of the pharaoh based on a CT scan of his actual skull.
Caroline Wilkinson, director of the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores, highlighted the complex scientific process.
“We take the computer tomography (CT) model of the skull, which gives us the 3D shape of the skull that we can take into our computer system,” Wilkinson said. “Then we have a database of pre-modelled facial anatomy that we import and then alter to fit the skull.”
She added: “So we’re basically building the face, from the surface of the skull to the surface of the face, through the muscle structure, and the fat layers, and then finally the skin layer.”
The director noted that all people have more or less the same muscles from the same origins with the same attachments.
“Because each of us has slightly different proportions and shape to our skull, you’ll get slightly different shapes and proportions for muscles, and that will directly influence the shape of a face,” she elaborated.
However, reconstructing the face of a long-dead pharaoh is not without its challenges.
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