Recreate the 1,600-year-old mummy face of Peruvian nobility

The face of a noble woman who died 1,600 years ago was vividly restored thanks to 3D technology.

Experts use advanced 3D forensic technology to create lifelike portraits of a noble female living in South America about 1,600 years ago, National Geographic reported on July 4.

Scientists dressed up mummy faces.(Video: National Geographic).

In 2005, archaeologists working at the El Brujo site in northern Peru coastal area found a cloth wrap buried in a sophisticated decorative burial site dating back to 400. Inside the fabric is The natural mummy of a young noble from the Moche civilization developed in the area about 1,000 years before the Inca Empire.

The mummy is called the Lady Cao by the locals, after a nearby town, Magdalena de Cao . The corpse is on display at a museum in El Brujo. Museum staff preserve mummies in temperature control chambers, visitors can only observe mummies through glass windows.

Museum management wants visitors to have a better chance to see this particular woman. They also need to create an exact copy of the woman's portrait for long-term preservation.

After mobilizing a group of international archaeologists, anthropologists, forensic scientists, painters and 3D technology engineers, Augusto N. Wiese Foundation started the project in November last year. .

Natural mummy of Lady Cao.(Photo: Reuters).

Researchers had to remove 20 layers of cloth wrapped around Señora's body and artifacts made of gold, silver and gold-plated copper to begin the restoration.Señora mummy was photographed with a modern handheld laser scanner designed by 3D FARO technology company.

After entering the scan data into the computer, the forensic expert began to recreate Señora's face. Using specialized software, the technician marks the depth of tissue according to average calculations from the corpses and replaces the facial muscles on the mummy's skull.

The skull of the mummy shows high cheekbones and the typical proportions of the Moche civilization in northern Peru from 100 to 700 years. In the rest of the reconstruction work, the team relies on guesswork. to reproduce soft features that are no longer saved after Señora dies.

In fact, Señora's body is not in its entirety. Her lips twitched, her nose disappeared, her eyes and eyelids dry and deep. Experts must rely on other clues to determine her appearance as a human figure on the Moche ceramics, the results of the excavated Moche skeletons, the image of the Peruvian people in the north ago. a century, and the Moche descendant's face lives in the area around present-day El Brujo.

After finishing the face, the team printed 3D the entire head of the body. A model used for display at the museum is made of fiberglass. But this model is as empty as a mannequin statue. To identify details such as eyeshadow, eyebrows, eyelashes, skin color, and costumes corresponding to Señora's high status, Fernández López works with a sculptor who specializes in reconstructing historical figures in the museum. .

The face after the renovation of Lady Cao.(Photo: Reuters).

Señora is only 25-29 years old when she dies. The reason why she was buried with treasure and her exact role in the community is still a mystery. " Without a handwritten note, we don't know who she is , " said John Verano, an anthropologist at Tulane, Louisiana University, who helped remove the cloth and restored Señora's face, sharing.

Researchers only know that Señora is an important person in society. With a height of 1.5 meters and a healthy body, she is not a warrior ready to go to battle, but may be the wife of a tribal leader.

"It was touching to see the last step of the restoration work. It felt like this woman was alive again. I told myself:" It's okay, Señora, so you're here with "" " said Arabel Fernández López, an archaeologist in charge of project supervision.