Meet Shep-en-Isis: Scientists reconstruct the face of a female mummy who died 2,600 years ago, revealing she was ‘probably a beautiful young lady’ despite having a set of protruding teeth
- Researchers have created an amazing facial reconstruction of an Egyptian mummy found in the 19th century
- ‘Shep-en-Isis’ was found in 1819 at Deir el-Bahari, a complex of temples and tombs on the west bank of the Nile
- She is considered to be the most famous Egyptian mummy in Switzerland, where she’s been kept since 1820
- She was likely ‘a beautiful lady during her lifetime’ with deep brown eyes and slightly protruding upper teeth
A forensic reconstruction of the face of a female mummy who died about 2,600 years ago reveals a ‘beautiful young lady’ with deep brown eyes and slightly protruding upper teeth.
Scientists have spent months creating the reconstruction of what they call the most famous Egyptian mummy in Switzerland known as Shep-en-Isis, or Schepenese, using CT scans and morphological data from her skeleton.
Shep-en-Isis was found in 1819 at Deir el-Bahari, a famous complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile River in Egypt, before being transported to Switzerland in 1820.
The remains are currently kept in the São Galo Abbey Library, in the Swiss city of St Gallen.
Inscriptions on her sarcophagus suggest she belonged to a wealthy upper-class family and would have had some degree of formal education during her existence in the 7th century BC.
She was the daughter of a priest in the city of Thebes, according to experts, and lived in the late period, the early 26th Dynasty – the last heyday of Ancient Egypt – prior to her death by 610 BC.
However, it’s not possible to identify the name or profession of Shep-en-Isis’s husband or whether or not she gave birth to children.
Scientists have reconstructed the face of a female mummy who died 6,200 years ago, revealing a beautiful young lady despite having a set of protruding teeth
Scientists have spent months creating the reconstruction of what they call the most famous Egyptian mummy in Switzerland known as Shep-en-Isis, or Schepenese, using CT scans and morphological data from her skeleton. The mummy of the young woman arrived in Switzerland as early as 1820 and has been the star among mummies in Switzerland ever since
Reconstructed tissue looking up towards the upper thoracic cavity. Very similar packages have also been found in the mummy of Shep-en-Isis’s father in Berlin
WHO WAS SHEP-EN-ISIS?
Shep-en-Isis, or Schepenese, was a woman who lived in Egypt during the 7th century BC.
In 1819, her remains were found in 1819 at Deir el-Bahari, a famous complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile River in Egypt.
Shep-en-Isis was found in a ‘family tomb’ located within the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Hatshepsut along with her father Pa-es-tjenfi, whose mummy is Berlin.
Inscriptions on her sarcophagus suggest she belonged to a wealthy upper-class family and would have had some degree of formal education during her existence in the 7th century BC.
She was the daughter of a priest in the city of Thebes, according to experts, and lived in the late period, the early 26th Dynasty – the last heyday of Ancient Egypt.
The reconstruction project was conducted by FAPAB Research Center in Sicily and Flinders University in Australia in collaboration with Cicero Moraes, a 3D designer from Brazil.
Moraes has previously created a series of facial reconstructions of historical figures such as Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ.
It was commissioned by the Abbey Library of Saint Gall, which had owned the CT, (computerised tomography) scans of the mummy for years.
‘The harmonious and well-proportioned skull suggests that Schepenese was probably a beautiful lady during her lifetime,’ the experts say.
Mentioned in the first reports from 1820 after her discovery ‘is the good and complete preservation of the teeth’, the team say, which is one of her most notable physical features in the reconstruction.
The team built up the living layers bit by bit, adding tissue, eyes and skin before fine details such as hair and tiny freckles around the nose to complement the effect.
Shep-en-Isis was found in a ‘family tomb’ located within the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari temple, along with her father Pa-es-tjenfi, whose mummy is Berlin.
‘Based on Shep-en-Isis’ anatomical age and the style of her inner coffin, she must have been born by around 650 BC and died between 620 and 610 BC,’ Dr Michael Habicht from Flinders University told Aventuras na História.
Due to her mummified ear, the shape of the ear could be reconstructed quite accurately, in contrast to pure skeletons where ears are reconstructed with a generic ear.
Certain details may also not have been recorded for Shep-en-Isis, for example, the team do not know the exact eye colour or the exact skin complexion.
Due to her Egyptian ancestry, brown eyes and a somewhat more olive skin colour were assumed.
Unlike many other facial reconstructions, jewellery, clothing and wigs were not used, as these are hypothetical assumptions, according to the team.
‘Our reconstruction focuses exclusively on the forensically reconstructed appearance and the anatomical evidence,’ they say.
The results of their efforts have been published in the form of a monograph entitled ‘The Forensic Facial Reconstruction of Shep-en-Isis’, listed on Amazon.
AN ANCIENT CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY? EGYPTIAN MUMMY IS REVEALED NOT TO BE THE NOBLEWOMAN NAMED ON THE 3,000-YEAR-OLD COFFIN
In a potentially ancient case of mistaken identity, a 2021 found that an Egyptian mummy likely wasn’t the person named on the front of its coffin.
Australian scientists performed computerised tomography (CT) scans and radiocarbon dating on the mummy and coffin, currently housed at the University of Sydney.
The mummified female body dates as far back as the year 1200 BC, while the coffin in which the mummy resides was constructed in the year 1000 BC, they found.
Mummified individual and coffin in the Nicholson Collection of the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. An Egyptian mummy has been revealed not to be the noblewoman named on the coffin it was found in
The body may have been inserted by a crafty Egyptian dealer into what was at the time an empty coffin at some point during the 19th century, just before it was bought for the university.
Sir Charles Nicholson, an English explorer who spent much of his career in Australia during the 19th century, bought the mummified body, lidded coffin and mummy board as a set during a trip to Egypt in between 1856 and 1867.
In 1860, Sir Nicholson donated it to the University of Sydney and two years later returned to live in England.
Read more: Egyptian mummy ‘doesn’t match the name on 3,000-year-old coffin’
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