Using some of the latest forensic technique , scientists and 3D designers have reconstructed the face of the Jericho skull , a prehistorical skull that was caked in plaster of Paris and had sea shells place on top of its eyes .
TheJericho skullis dated to around 9,000 age former and was first recovered by archeologist Kathleen M. Kenyon in 1953 around the Palestinian urban center of Jericho in the West Bank .
It ’s not unmortgaged why the Jericho skull was slather in plaster and had whelk shells placed on its eyes . However , it was perhaps part of a ritual where relatives reconstructed the faces of their ancestors with pigment and plaster to honour them .
The process of reconstructing a 9,000 year old face. Image credit: Cicero Moraes/Thiago Beaini/Moacir Santos (CC BY 4.0)
The skull is currently beingheld at the British Museum , but the forensics squad in Brazil was able to grasp a deep understanding of the specimen through micro - computed tomography ( micro - CT ) scans carried out in 2016 .
Crucially for this labor , the 3-D scanning was capable to glance through the plaster that get across the skull and provide light information on the structure of the face .
“ We are involved in a foresighted - condition project , which will approximate the expression of individuals with skeletal deformities , structurally degenerative diseases such as pox and conditions such as achondroplasia ( dwarfism ) , macrocephaly , etc . Each of these slip is studied as a team , so that it is not just a question of award the brass , but of inform high society about the setting and historic world of the skull , ” Cícero Moraes , a Brazilian 3D designer specializing in forensic facial reconstruction who worked on the project , told IFLScience .
“ The Jericho skull fits the bill , as it is an anatomic slice that underwent morphological remodeling and has a very interesting story wall its discovery , ” he add together .
The micro - CT CAT scan divulge a skull without a bottom jaw and two serious crevice . The top , more serious cut in the top of the skull was most likely the result of being squeeze by soil after burial , but the other crack between the supercilium may have appeared close to the mortal ’s dying .
It appear the skull belong to to a middle - aged someone , although the sexual activity of the person has establish difficult to pin down . The skull was originally classified as distaff , but researchers later agreed it was more likely to have been a male person due to its large bones and its thick-skulled orbital rim .
As ever withforensic facial Reconstruction Period , the process is a mixture of shape with some artistry and educated guesses . While the bone structure can give some indication of the human face Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and how tissue might appear on the bone , it ’s harder to deduce some facial features based on the skull alone .
In the case of the Jericho skull , this was especially true for the somebody ’s jawline since the skull ’s lower jaw bone was missing . Other element like their hair , whiskers , and skin pigmentation were also based on how people might have seem in the region at this time .
The end result is a vivid brainwave into the human face of a man who lived in the Levant over 9,000 years ago and , for reasons that break loose modern expert , his skull was coated in thick plaster in an unusual ritual .
The research was published in the journalOrtogOnline .
