Daily Times

Scientists have resurrected the voice of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian priest by recreating his vocal tract with a 3D printer.

Nesyamun, whose coffin was inscribed with “true of voice” when he died, was a priest and scribe during the reign of pharaoh Ramses XI (c.1099-1069 BC).

His voice is said to have been a vital tool to carry out his duties at the state temple of Karnak in modern Luxor, and he had expressed a desire to still be heard once in the afterlife.

Now – a team of scientists from Royal Holloway, University of London, University of York, and Leeds museum have managed to make this a reality.

The team recreated the ancient priest’s vocal tract by putting his mummified remains through a CT scan to take precise measurements of his preserved speech organs.

They then 3D printed a replica of his vocal tract, known as the Vocal Tract Organ.

By using the Vocal Tract Organ with an artificial larynx sound that is commonly used in today’s speech synthesis systems, they synthesised the vowel sound.