Science / Scientists synthesise voice of 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy

Zoom News : Jan 24, 2020, 02:44 PM
The sound of a 3,000 year old mummified individual has been accurately reproduced as a vowel-like sound based on measurements of the precise dimensions of his extant vocal tract following Computed Tomography (CT) scanning, enabling the creation of a 3-D printed vocal tract. By using the Vocal Tract Organ, which provides a user-controllable artificial larynx sound source, a vowel sound is synthesised which compares favourably with vowels of modern individuals.

Introduction

The sound of a vocal tract from the past has been synthesised to be heard again in the present, allowing people to engage with the past in completely new and innovative ways. The precise dimensions of an individual’s vocal tract produce a sound unique to them. 

If the tract dimensions can be scientifically established, vocal sounds can be synthesised by using an electronic larynx sound source and a 3-D printed vocal tract.

Since the restoration of an exact vocal sound requires the perfect preservation of the soft tissues, this is impossible for individuals whose remains are only skeletal. Even where soft tissue does survive, for example in mummified remains, the vocal tract can either be missing or distorted. 

The process is only feasible when the relevant soft tissue is reasonably intact, as in the case of the 3,000 year-old mummified body of the Egyptian priest Nesyamun, whose ‘in death’ vocal tract acoustic output has been scientifically synthesised. This acoustic output is for the single sound for the extant vocal tract shape; it does not provide a basis for synthesising running speech. 

To do so would require knowledge of the relevant vocal tract articulations, phonetics and timing patterns of his language. The synthesised vowel sound based on the precise dimensions of his unique vocal tract is here compared to modern vowels as proof of method and to demonstrate future research potential.

Having established the scientific recreation of a 3-D printed vocal tract unique to a living individual, the ‘Voices from the Past’ Project was set up to investigate this possibility for those long dead in cases where their remains are sufficiently well preserved. With the need for optimum preservation of the vocal tract an essential requirement, combined with the practical necessity for precise CT-imaging in close proximity to the individual selected, the mummified body of Nesyamun was a highly appropriate choice. This was also true for archaeological reasons.

The Egyptian Nesyamun (Fig. 1) lived during the politically volatile reign of pharaoh Ramses XI (c.1099–1069 BC) over 3000 years ago, working as a scribe and priest at the state temple of Karnak in Thebes (modern Luxor). His voice was an essential part of his ritual duties which involved spoken as well as sung elements.

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