Scientists from Belfast have taken part in a major TV documentary which pieces together the history of a legendary Egyptian mummy.
In the programme, called “Show me the Mummy: The Face of Takabuti”, the researchers explain how they shed more light on the mummy using radiocarbon dating, isotope analysis and other techniques.
Perhaps most fascinating of all, they used 3D computer modelling and forensic facial reconstruction techniques to show what she would have looked like when she was alive.
Takabuti's image comes alive, thanks to forensic facial reconstruction and computer modelling. Image courtesy of BBC Northern Ireland
Ulster Museum
As last night’s documentary on BBC Northern Ireland explains, Takabuti has always been one of the Ulster Museum’s most popular exhibits.
Now as the exhibit is prepared to go on display again in the reopened museum, Dr Eileen Murphy and John Meneely from Queen’s University have joined forces with experts from Manchester and Dundee to trace her history and recreate her face using the latest scientific technology.
The team travelled as far as the deserts of Cairo and Luxor in Egypt to discover facts such as:
- Where Takabuti lived
- Her age and diet
- What life was really like for her during the Egyptian 25th Dynasty
- Why her hair may have been blonde
- Where she was brought to pass on into the afterlife
- How the mummy was first unwrapped in 1835 by Edward Hincks, an Egyptologist from Cork
- How Takabuti ended up in Belfast
The mummy will be the centrepiece of the Ulster Museum’s new exhibition on ancient Egypt when it reopens this Thursday (22 October). The display will feature the recreated head of Takabuti as revealed in the documentary.
Learn more
If you are in the UK you can see the programme for seven days following its transmission on the BBC iPlayer
Find out about more events at the Ulster Museum
Read about our Science Ambassador who studies paleobotany – working with fossil plants that lived over 200 million years ago
