A prominent Egyptian pharaoh is getting some high-tech face time.
Archeologists and graphics experts have come together to recreate the facial features of Amenhotep I, who ruled during the 18th Dynasty around 1,500 BCE, some 3,500 years ago.
Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes, who also recreated the looks of descendant Amenhotep III, noted that his ancestor likely looked different than how he was depicted in treasures and statues of the time, the U.K. Sun reported, per the New York Post.
The enshrinements didn’t capture his “overbite” and showed that the king was “more projected in the chin region.”
However, “the statues of Amenhotep I are compatible in the nose region,” Moraes said of the “dignified” recreated face. It also accounted for his head shape while wearing the iconic blue and gold “names” pharaoh headdress.
The Amenhotep details were based on a 2021 report in which the pharaoh was “virtually unwrapped” via CT scan.
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“The 2021 study did not indicate a cause of death but stipulated his age at death as approximately 35 years,” Cicero’s co-author, archaeologist Michael Habicht, said of the 5-foot-5 ruler.
“His teeth were in good condition” and “his hair was coiled,” Habicht added. He noted “a series of postmortem injuries” most likely due to tomb robbers or his mummified remains becoming re-wrapped.
Amenhotep potentially took the throne as just a child and ruled with the help of his mother, Ahmose-Nefertari, according to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
It’s thought that his reign lasted between two and three decades.