The collection of the exhibition includes busts of a Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon and other people who lived in different time periods.
On 26 January, the Museum in Brighton (UK) opened an exhibition dedicated to the faces of ancient people. All the busts were created by Swedish medical examiner Oscar Nilsson. He told Live Science in more detail about the work done.
According to him, it took him hundreds of hours to recreate the faces. In doing so, Nilsson used all the available information: details of the skulls, the results of DNA analyzes, the results of radiocarbon dating, and much more. He worked with each head separately. First, he printed a copy of the skull on a 3D printer, and then, after studying all the available data, he began to apply the muscles with plasticine.
The first specialist to restore the face of a Neanderthal woman who once lived in Gibraltar. Then he took up a Cro-Magnon man from France. Signs of dark skin were found in his genes. Cro-Magnons lived in the area of modern Europe and could inhabit the south coast of England. There lived a woman whose remains are estimated to be five and a half thousand years old. Her skin also had a swarthy hue - this is evidenced by the genetic characteristics of her contemporaries who lived in the same area.
Next in line was a man from the Iron Age. According to Nilsson, the shape of his skull suggests that he had beautiful facial features but had wide gaps between his teeth - a condition known as diastema.
Promotional video:
The remains of a woman who lived in about 250 AD retained signs of toil. Her spine has traces of Schmorl's hernia, but what struck Nilsson more was a nail driven into the back of her head. The last was a man of the Anglo-Saxon period.
In conclusion, the reconstructor added that he used silicone and prosthetic eyes, but these materials served a rigorous approach in which he went gradually, repairing every muscle in the face.
Alexey Evglevsky