Face of 9,500-Year-Old Man Revealed for First Time

>An Unprecedented Discovery

>The Jericho Skull is one of seven plastered and ornamented Neolithic skulls excavated by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in 1953 at the site of Tell es-Sultan, near the modern West Bank city of Jericho. The discovery—an archaeological sensation that brought Kenyon international fame—was first reported in National Geographic in December of that year.

>"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," Kenyon wrote, describing to Geographic readers the moment that the first skull was revealed. "No archeologist [sic] had even guessed at the existence of such a work of art."

>While the seven skulls varied in detail, all had been originally stuffed with soil to support delicate facial bones before wet plaster was applied to create individualized facial features, such as ears, cheeks, and noses. Small marine shells represented eyes, and some skulls bore traces of paint.

>Since Kenyon's discovery, more than 50 such ornamented skulls have been discovered in Neolithic sites from the Middle East to central Turkey. While researchers generally agree that the objects represent an early form of ancestor worship, very little is known about who was chosen to be immortalized in plaster thousands of years ago, and why.

>Other Neolithic plaster skulls have been digitally examined, but the skeletal remains inside the British Museum's Jericho Skull are the first to be 3-D printed and forensically reconstructed.
...

>Separating Plaster from Bone—Virtually

>Kenyon's remarkable Neolithic portrait heads were dispersed to museums across the world for further study, and the British Museum's Jericho Skull arrived in London in 1954. But early attempts to coax more information out of the unusual artifact proved fruitless.

>The passage of thousands of years had erased many physical details from the plaster covering the skull, and a traditional x-ray scan was unable to differentiate between the similar densities of bone and plaster. The result was "a white blob on an x-ray plate," says Alexandra Fletcher, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Curator for the Ancient Near East, who headed up the reconstruction project for the British Museum.

>It wasn't until the Jericho Skull underwent a micro-CT scan in 2009 that researchers could finally visualize the human remains beneath the plaster. The scan revealed an adult cranium (the lower jaw had been removed), more likely male than female. The septum was broken, and rear molars were missing. A hole had been carved in the back of the cranium so it could be packed with soil, and the scans even illuminated 9,500-year-old thumbprints from where someone eventually sealed the hole with fine clay.
...

>A New Face for the Museum's Oldest Portrait

>In 2016, the British Museum created a digital 3-D model of the cranium from the CT scanning data and learned even more about the Neolithic man inside the Jericho Skull. While the scans suggested a broken nose, for instance, the 3-D model demonstrated the severity of the damage.

>Fletcher's team decided to take things further and created a physical model of the skull using a 3-D printer. Then they enlisted the skills of the RN-DS Partnership, an expert forensic facial reconstruction firm.

>Using the printed cranium and the model of a human male lower jaw from another Neolithic site near Jericho, the forensic experts were able to reconstruct the facial musculature onto the digitally created remains from inside the Jericho Skull, just as people had fashioned cheeks, ears, and lips from plaster onto the original human bone more than 9,000 years ago.

>"It's as if we did the Neolithic process in reverse," says Fletcher, proud that the British Museum's oldest portrait finally has a new face.

>Until February 19, 2017, the facial reconstruction and the original Jericho Skull will be displayed side-by-side in a British Museum exhibit entitled "Creating an ancestor: the Jericho Skull."

Looks Asian

>>115120
Megamind

>>115120
Thats real fucking neato

>>115120
I saw that guy a few days ago as I was passing thru chinatown.

>>115120
this is old news. I already went and saw that months back.

This model based science will lead to a rebirth of religion

This is just irritating. Like im supposed to believe a computer can undo 7000 years. Just stop.

>the lower jaw had been removed
>more likely male than female.
>The septum was broken
>rear molars were missing.
>A hole had been carved in the back of the cranium

They weren't even 100% sure it was a man.

>but here's exactly how its face looked
>money now pl0x

>>115527
The more that is revealed, the more we notice human race has never evolved....

>>115574
Is this real

>>115120

ayyyyyyyyy

>>115120
Face/Off

>>115574
Physiologically, not really. All of our advancement for the last 10k years has been social and technological.

>>115572
My thoughts as well.

Poor guy, looks like he was hit with pollonium

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/07/03/what-lies-beneath-new-discoveries-about-the-jericho-skull/

What normal community venerates their dead by shoving seashells into their eye sockets and painting up their skull in hideous patterns? What about those grisly wounds that somehow carry no explanation.

I've thought for years these painted skulls from that region of the world were just part of some kind of death cult, and now I have stronger evidence in favor of that view. This particular individual appears to have been savagely tortured before his remains were desecrated.

>>116202
What, you think draining the blood, pumping a body with embalming fluid, then burying it is so much more civilized?

>>116204
The intent in this case is preservation. In virtually all modern cultures around the world, the body is given makeup and fine clothing in order to reflect some of its lifetime beauty.

Maybe I'm completely wrong but these Jericho skulls just leave a bad taste in my mouth. They suggest a callous disregard for death. In fact you see the drug cartels doing similar shit where they take people's facial skins and sew them onto soccer balls.

>>116205
In many tribal cultures even still today, the bones of ancestors are worshiped like gods. It might be something similar with this. It's from so long ago that little is known about what these people considered to be their religion.

>>115574
>never eveolved
10k years ago, dipshit. of course it looks like a homo sapiens. what evolution do you expect?
>"the more we notice"
folks in the middle ages were about the height and size of young adults today. imagine a knight sporting 150cm.
>"revealed"
the model scientists are only guessing. so, he could have been uglier, more primitve-looking, fatter, thinner, tattoed, bearded, scarced, thick as a brick, or like an old leather bag...