From the Trenches - Faces of Egypt - Archaeology Magazine Archive

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(Courtesy Josh Harker)

When President Obama visited the Giza Plateau this June, the highlight wasn't the Great Pyramid, but the tomb of an Old Kingdom official named Qar, where the president spied the hieroglyph "hr," engraved on a pillar. The glyph means "on," "at," or "because of," and takes the shape of a head with unusually large ears. Video footage shows an enthusiastic Obama pointing it out to his entourage, saying, "That looks like me! Look at those ears!"

Meanwhile, back in the president's hometown, the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum has put a face on the ancient Egyptian mummy Meresamun ("A Mummy's Life," March/April 2009). Two forensic artists reconstructed Meresamun's face using 3-D images of her skull. Michael Brassell, a Baltimore-based forensic artist for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, produced traditional pencil sketches and Josh Harker, a forensic artist in Chicago, created digital models.