A reconstruction of Lady of Cao, the name given to the mummified body of a priestess whose tomb was discovered more than a decade ago in La Libertad, Peru, in a picture released by the Peruvian national news service Andina on July 4, 2017 (AFP Photo/Oscar FARJE)

Lima (AFP) - Introducing the Lady of Cao: using high-tech 3-D printing and based on the skull of an ancient mummy, scientists have reconstructed the face of a woman who governed in northern Peru 1,700 years ago. More than 1,700 years after her lavishly garbed, mummified body was ceremonially buried by the Moche in a royal tomb on Peru’s northern coast, officials on Tuesday revealed to the world a forensic recreation of the High Priestess of the Huaca Cao. The replica of the woman's oval-shaped face with high cheekbones took 10 months to create, with a team of researchers and imaging experts using the woman’s skull structure, ethnographic research, 3D imaging technology and forensics archaeology. Trending: ISIS on the Web: Islamic State Has 30,000-Website-Strong 'Virtual Caliphate,' Warns EU Anti-Terror Chief

“We now have the privilege of presenting the combination between future and past," the country’s culture minister Salvador del Solar said at the event in Peru’s capital of Lima introducing the Lady of Cao, as the woman is known, to the world. Peru's culture ministry revealed the face Monday, alongside a replica of her mummy, and said they hoped it would allow Peruvians to feel a sense of their cultural history. “We can now show the world her face, a face that Peruvians see ourselves in.”

The discovery of the Lady of Cao’s mummified remains in 2005 shattered the belief the ancient Moche society, which occupied the Chicama Valley from about AD100 to AD700, was patriarchal. “Technology allows us to see the face of a political, religious and cultural leader of the past.”

Discovered in 2005 in an intact tomb, the Lady Cao was a young woman adorned with the regalia of the high Moche religious hierarchy — making her the first known female ruler of pre-Columbian Peru. An autopsy on the Lady of Cao’s body revealed she was in her 20s when she died, possibly of complications from childbirth. The woman's body was covered in elaborate tattoos of snakes, spiders and supernatural motifs, and buried wearing a golden crown among gold and copper items and weapons, including two war clubs and 23 spear throwers, according to the BBC. The forensic digital reconstruction was commissioned by the Wiese Foundation, which funds the sprawling El Brujo archaeological complex where the Lady Cao was discovered and is kept on display at the site’s ultra-modern museum. The replica of the Lady of Cao, a collaboration that included archaeologists, the Wiese Foundation and global imaging company FARO Technologies Inc (FARO.O), will be displayed in Peru's culture ministry in the capital Lima through July 16.
The face of the Peruvian Moche mummy the Lady of Cao is reconstructed from its skull structure, using forensic archaeology techniques and ethnographic research.