In 1922, the tomb of King Tutankhamen was discovered, revealing the remains of the “Boy King” for the first time since his death in 1323 BC. Then, in 2010, Tut’s remains got a high-tech upgrade in the form of a 3D printed replica. The replica was crafted to look exactly like the original mummy and was put on display as part of a touring National Geographic Exhibit.
Creating a true-to-life replica of a 3,000 year old mummy was no easy task, even by today’s 3D printing standards. Representatives from National Geographic decided to contact the noted prehistoric model maker Gary Staab to find what their options might be.
Staab was familiar with the 3D printing company Materialise and he decided that their Mammoth Stereolithography 3D printer was just the thing to produce a precise replica of Tutankhamen’s remains.
The engineers at Materialise imported CT scans of King Tut’s mummy into their Mimics software. Using the software they were able to create a virtual 3D replica. Then, they used their 3-matic software to hollow out the 3D model. The “hollowing” was done to reduce the amount of material needed as well as the time required to build the replica. Finally, they used their Magics software to clean up the 3D file and make the model watertight. At that point, King Tut was ready to be printed.
Layer by layer the staff and cameras watched as the stereolithography 3D printer rebuilt King Tutankhamen’s remains. Once the print was complete, engineers at Materialise removed the support material from the build and completed post-processing. Then, they carefully packed King Tut in a crate and shipped him to Belgium where Staab was waiting to transform him from a large piece of printed plastic to a realistically rotting mummy.
Staab’s process was time consuming; he slowly rebuilt Tut’s appearance one layer at a time, applying coat upon coat of materials until he achieved the perfect effect. Visually, it is almost impossible to tell the 3D printed replica from the original mummy.
Materialise put out a video detailing the build process. You can take a look at it here:
More and more museums are beginning to embrace 3D technology as a path to sharing history’s treasures. The Smithsonian has their own 3D crew, called the “Laser Cowboys,” and the Skulpturhalle museum in Switzerland has authorized artist Cosmo Wenman to scan and print some of their treasures.