CHICAGO, IL.- On the heels of their last appearance, two of The Field Museum’s oldest mummies come face-to-face with the public like never before in Images of the Afterlife: Facing the Ancient Egyptians. Opened June 8, the companion exhibition to the successful Opening the Vaults: Mummies unveils the newly-created busts of The Curly-Haired Woman and The Teenage Boy (specimen #s) alongside their CT scans and mummified remains.

In July 2011, scientists put many of The Museum’s mummies through a CT scanner in order to peak inside the wrappings without disturbing the remains. The findings of those scans were the basis for Opening the Vaults: Mummies.

Now, using the CT scans, resin skulls were created and shipped to Atelier Daynès, a studio in Paris famous for facial reconstructions. Artist Elisabeth Daynès reproduced the faces of the woman and boy by layering muscles and skin on the resin skulls to create lifelike sculptures. Visitors can look into the eyes of people who lived and died thousands of years ago.

The mummies, the busts, and the scans serve as the centerpieces of Images of the Afterlife. A recently purchased bust of King Tut that was also created by Elisabeth Daynès join The Curly-Haired Woman and The Teenage Boy. An interactive allowing visitors to virtually unwrap a mummy just like Museum scientists also is on display.