How technology is revolutionising our understanding of ancient Egypt - New Scientist

A period connected from the find of Tutankhamun’s tomb, CT scans, 3D printers and virtual world are bringing the satellite of the pharaohs – and mean past Egyptians – into sharper focus

Humans 2 November 2022

By Jo Marchant

Ula Šveikauskaitė

A CENTURY agone this month, Howard Carter opened the tomb of the lad king Tutankhamun. Within, helium recovered ornate jewellery, beauteous furniture, good covering – and that celebrated golden look mask. Everything was successful keeping with a royal burial from the astir prosperous play successful past Egyptian history. Or astir everything, due to the fact that hidden wrong the mummy’s bindings, Carter discovered a dagger that seemed retired of place.

The occupation wasn’t with its aureate sheath. It was with its leaf of gleaming robust – a metallic the Egyptians didn’t larn to smelt until centuries aft Tutankhamun’s death. Carter had a elemental explanation. He assumed the dagger was imported, possibly from the past Hittite Empire successful Anatolia, wherever there was an aboriginal robust industry. Not until 2016 was it confirmed that the robust originated from overmuch further afield, with the find it contains the high levels of nickel associated with meteoric iron. For the Egyptians who wrapped the dagger adjacent to their king’s body, it was a acquisition from the gods.

What makes this uncovering important is the mode it was made – done an X-ray investigation performed without damaging the dagger. It is indicative of a caller attack to Egyptology that emphasises preservation implicit destruction. Whether it is studying mummies without unwrapping them oregon generating virtual landscapes arsenic they existed millennia ago, we tin present marque discoveries Carter could person hardly dreamed astir portion leaving artefacts intact for aboriginal generations.

Scanning a mummy is thing new: X-rays were discovered successful 1895, and a fewer years later, successful 1903, Carter carried the 3300-year-old assemblage of Pharaoh Thutmose IV retired of the Egyptian Museum successful …