Scientists reveal what Egypt’s warrior pharaoh known as ‘The Brave’ looked like – 3,500 years after he was brutally killed in battle

Scientists have reconstructed the face of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was brutally killed 3,500 years ago, revealing how the king met his fate.

Seqenenre-Tao-II, also known as ‘The Brave,’ was either murdered when captured in the middle of the night or on the battlefield at the age of 40 while trying to liberate Egypt from Hyksos people in 1555BC. 

A team of archaeologists at Australia’s Flinders University pieced his face together using CT scans and X-rays of the king’s mangled skull, showing the pharaoh with small eyes and lips and high cheekbones. 

The facial reconstruction also revealed a blow to the upper region of Toa’s brain likely led to his death.

Seqenenre-Tao-II, also known as ‘the Brave,’ was either murdered in his sleep or mowed down on the battlefield while trying to liberate Egypt from Hyksos people in 1555BC

The manner of the pharaoh’s death, whether captured or on the battlefield, has been a subject of debate ever since his remains were found in the 1800s.

But what has been known is that there were several assailants who attacked Tao from different directions. 

Tao’s face was reconstructed using his skull found by archaeologists in a tomb complex known as Deir el-Bahri, within the Theban necropolis, back in 1886.

They digitally scanned the remains, uploading them to a computer and filling the blanks in with a skull from another individual that had been previously digitized. 

The other skull was altered until it matched Tao’s – a process called anatomical deformation.

The team went to work by drawing out a digital profile of the king’s face and made the skin color similar to what was common among ancient Egyptians – it ‘does not necessarily reflect the real color of the skin,’ the study reads.

Toa’s eye shape, eyelashes and eyebrows are also subjective elements, but researchers said they humanize the ancient king. 

A team of archaeologists at Australia’s Flinders University pieced his face together using CT images and X-rays of the king’s mangled skull, showing the pharaoh was of Nubian descent, with small eyes and lips and high cheekbones

The team pulled information from previous research to understand how the death played out, which showed the first ax blow was in the lower right frontal area and left cheek 

Toa’s remains were first analyzed in 1886 by Egyptologists who first identified a wound just above his eyebrow bone and that his tongue had been bitten between the teeth

The team also used thickness markers to match those of African descent and then they added digital wounds to see exactly how the objects wounded the king.

Digital skulls with an exposed brain were then used to see what ax may had killed the king, revealing the largest wound had penetrated his brain.

The weapon pierced the superior sagittal sinus, which likely caused bleeding that led to Tao’s final breaths.

For the postmortem images, the team left his lips slightly open and tongue between the teeth due to some injuries and facial deformities that would have caused the details when Tao was killed. 

One of the weapons pierced the superior sagittal sinus, which likely caused bleeding that led to Tao’s final breaths (image C) 

For the postmortem images, the team left his lips slightly opened and tongue between the teeth due to some injuries and facial deformities that would have caused the details when Tao was killed

Gaston Maspero, a French Egyptologist, discovered the brave pharaoh among hundreds of coffins and mummies in 1886.

Maspero determined that Tao was slender, with a small and elongated head and black, fine and curly hair -based on the hair that remained on the mummified body. 

The pharaoh ruled over the southern, Theban region of Egypt from around 1560–1555 BC, during the Seventeenth Dynasty.

At this time, lower and middle Egypt was occupied by the Hyksos — a dynasty of Palestinian origin who ruled from the city of Avaris in the Nile delta.

Tao fathered two pharaohs — Kamose, his immediate successor, and Ahmose I, who ruled following a regency by his mother.

Gaston Maspero, a French Egyptologist, discovered the brave pharaoh among hundreds of coffins and mummies. Maspero determined that Tao was tall, slender, with a small and elongated head, black, fine and curly hair -based on the hair that remained on the mummified body

Egyptologists James Harris and Kent Weeks, who performed a forensic examination of Tao in the 1960s, said that a ‘foul, oily smell filled the room the moment the case in which his body was exhibited was opened’.

This odor was attributed to bodily fluids having been accidentally left in the mummy at the time of burial. 

During the embalming process, those performing the ritual pack the body with mineral that dries it out.

But experts have suggested that Toa’s mummification was rushed because his body was left with fluids – but the reason is not yet known.