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Video: Sounds from the next world: Scientists managed to reproduce the voice of a 3000-year-old mummy
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The mummified body of the ancient Egyptian priest Nesyamun is on display in the English city of Leeds. The remains are several thousand years old, and this fact alone is fascinating. However, this mummy is interesting, first of all, because scientists were able to determine in what voice this long-deceased Egyptian spoke during his lifetime.
Artificial ligaments
A pagan priest served in ancient Thebes approximately in the period 1099-1069. BC, when Pharaoh Ramses XI ruled, which was a politically difficult period for Ancient Egypt. To perform ritual ceremonies that included chanting, the priest Nesyamunu needed a very strong voice.
Three thousand years ago, this voice was silent forever, but now, in the 21st century, a team of researchers has brought it back to life.
Details of the experiment, conducted by scientists from Royal Holloway College, University of London, as well as the University of York and the Leeds Museum, were published in Scientific Reports.
- The human speech (vocal) tract is a channel that filters the sound produced by the larynx. To copy the sound made by Nesyamun's vocal tract, the exact dimensions of the vocal tract had to be scanned and 3D printed. Thus, it was possible to recreate the vocal apparatus of the deceased, - the article explains.
Using an "artificial" vocal tract, the scientists synthesized a vowel sound that mimics Nesyamun's voice.
Did the priest have a bleating voice?
By the way, everyone who has heard the recreated zing (it is a cross between the vowels "a" and "e") is inclined to believe that it resembles the bleating of a sheep. Well, voices are not chosen …
It should be noted here that, in principle, the entire complex process described above is possible only when the soft tissue of the object's vocal tract is not damaged. In the case of the priest, the scientists were in luck: his mummified body was perfectly preserved, although he lacks the muscular mass of the tongue and a soft palate.
It is believed that this is the first of its kind project to successfully recreate the voice of a deceased person artificially.
The article notes that until now, scientists have made attempts to recreate the ancient voices. For example, there are recordings of the voice of one of the last castrated singers, Alessandro Moreschi, made at the beginning of the last century, shortly before his death. However, the reconstruction of the sounds of a person who lived several thousand years ago, based on the recreated vocal tract of the deceased, is a real breakthrough in science.
In the future, researchers hope to achieve the reproduction of not only a single sound, but also words, and even complete sentences, in Nesyamun's voice!
“The technique of voice restoration gave us a unique opportunity to hear the sound of a person who died long ago, and this is incredible,” study co-author Joanne Fletcher, professor of archeology at the University of York, told the BBC.
His colleague, professor of archeology John Schofield, in turn, clarified that the scientists, in a sense, fulfilled the priest's desire, since he wanted to be heard in the afterlife, which was part of his religious belief system.
“He wanted it himself, it was written on his coffin,” said Professor Schofield. “We hope we can create a version of what the priest might say in the temple at Karnak.
What else can be said about the priest
However, scientists were not only interested in the voice of the priest. Research has shown that Nesyamun suffered from gum disease and severely decayed teeth. The man died at about 50 years old, and scientists suggest that the cause of his death was a severe allergy.
Today, being the only mummy dating back to the period of the reign of Ramses XI, Nesyamun is of particular value to scientists all over the world. A detailed analysis of his remains contributed to a deeper understanding of the life of Ancient Egypt in general.
Read also about how the legacy of Ancient Egypt was treated in enlightened Europe
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