Scientists Found 9,500 Year Old Man’s Face and This Is What It Reveals

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Scientists and researchers have always amazed us with their art of discovery. And yet, here they are with another addition.

Researchers have engineered the ancient ritual practice reversely, creating one of the British Museum’s most exclusive artefacts -the Jericho Skull. It reveals the face of a man whose remains were venerated and decorated some 9,500 years ago.

Let’s study about the progress since its discovery.

The oldest portrait.

The Jericho Skull is also considered to be one of the oldest portraits in the museum and also the most enigmatic, for it is a truncated human skull with eye sockets and covered in worn plaster.

With the help of digital imaging and 3D printing, the specialists have been able to recreate the face of the person inside the Jericho Skull.

An Unprecedented Discovery.

It is one of the seven ornamented and plastered Neolithic skulls that were excavated by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in the year 1953.

Kenyon wrote, “We realized with a thrill of discovery that we were looking at the portrait of a man who lived and died more than 7,000 years ago. No archaeologist had even guessed at the existence of such a work of art.”

Virtually separating plaster from the bone.

It was after the micro-CT scan, which the Jericho Skull underwent, that helped the researchers to finally visualise the human remains which were beneath the plaster. The scan assisted in revealing the adult cranium, more likely of a male than female. The rear molars were missing and the septum was broken. The scans even reflected the 9500-year-old thumbprints.

A New Face for the Museum’s Oldest Portrait.

In 2016, the British Museum created a 3D digital model of the cranium with the help of the CT scanning data. The model reflected a severe damage.

Further action was taken.

Then Fletcher’s team decided to follow the project and take things ahead. He then created a physical model of the skull with the help of a 3-D printer. Subsequently, they listed the skills of the RN-DS Partnership, which is an expert forensic facial reconstruction firm.

The reconstruction…

Using the model and printed cranium from another Neolithic site near Jericho, the forensic experts were, however, able to reconstruct the facial masculature on the digitally created remains; just as the people had cheeks, lips, ears from plaster onto the original human bone more than 9,000 years ago.

The final product.

Fletcher said, “It’s as if we did the Neolithic process in reverse.”

Until February 19, 2017, the original Jericho Skull and the facial reconstruction will be juxtaposed in the British Museum. It will be entitled “Creating an ancestor: the Jericho Skull.”

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