The Face of Takabuti

Abstract

A key aim of the project documented by this book was to see how Takabuti would have looked when she was alive. A focal point of the research and the associated television programme was the production of a facial reconstruction based on Takabuti’s skull. A 3-D laser scan was made of her head in Queen’s University Belfast which was used as the foundation for a scientific facial reconstruction produced at the University of Dundee. For the first time in some 2600 years, Takabuti’s living appearance was once again visible. Although the scope of the current research programme has focused on one mummy, its remit is much wider. It aims to show how the methodology first developed for Egyptian mummies at the University of Manchester in the 1970s – employing multidisciplinary scientific techniques in combination with archaeological, historical and inscriptional evidence – can provide a wealth of information. This not only relates to the historical context, individual ancestry and life events pertaining to the mummy under investigation, but also to wider issues of health, disease, diet, lifestyle, and religious and funerary customs in an ancient society.