Have You Seen This? What does a mummy say?

Scientists in 2020 recreated the voice of a real mummy, Nesyamun — a 3,000-year-old priest — by using a 3D printer to build a replica of his mouth and vocal cords.

Scientists in 2020 recreated the voice of a real mummy, Nesyamun — a 3,000-year-old priest — by using a 3D printer to build a replica of his mouth and vocal cords. (kmlkmljkl, YouTube)


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This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Mummies may be making a comeback after the new ancient Egyptian-themed Marvel series "Moon Knight" wrapped up (pun intended) last week.

Now a pre-pandemic viral video has reemerged on the social media circuit, and it's quite the talker.

Scientists in 2020 recreated the voice of a real mummy, Nesyamun — a 3,000-year-old priest — by using a 3D printer to build a replica of his mouth and vocal cords.

According to the video, the scientists produced a single sound: "Ah!"

While he may not exactly sound like Imhotep, the slightly menacing exclamation will give you a good laugh.

Watch the video here:

After watching that video about 10 times on Instagram, imagine my disappointment when I searched for the original video on YouTube and discovered the "Ah!" in the viral version is a fake.

The actual sound made by the Nesyamun voice replication shared in the original video is almost as funny and unexpected, though. Instead of a scary-sounding mummy-like in the movies, we hear more of an "eh" in the nasally style of Squidward Tentacles.

According to the CBS News segment, scientists at Leeds Museums and Galleries in England chose to recreate the voice of Nesyamun partly due to an inscription on his coffin that says he hopes to "speak again after death."

Hopefully, those mummy scientists keep working on voice replication. That's some good stuff.

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Ashley Imlay is an evening news manager for KSL.com. A lifelong Utahn, Ashley has also worked as a reporter for the Deseret News and is a graduate of Dixie State University.

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