Using CT scans, 3D printing and an electronic larynx, researchers from the University of London and the University of York have succeeded in synthesizing the sound produced by the vocal tract of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy .
However, it is a sound that does not provide the basis for synthesizing speech, as detailed in the study that presents this finding, published in the journal Scientific Reports . That is, they were able to reproduce a single sound , similar to the English words ‘bed’ and ‘bad’.
Nesyamun
London Royal Holloway University researcher David Howard and colleagues used non-destructive CT scans to confirm a significant part of the larynx and throat structure of the 3,000-year-old mummified body of Egyptian priest Nesyamun.
The precise dimensions of an individual’s vocal tract produce a unique sound, but for us to reproduce them the soft tissue of the vocal tract must be reasonably intact, which is the case with Nesyamun because it remained intact as a result of the mummification process .
The authors suggest that their proof-of-concept recreation of a vocal tract preserved for three millennia has implications for how the past is presented to the public in the present and may provide an opportunity to hear the output of an individual’s vocal tract. lived in ancient times.