Making Faces

In recent years, the authors have performed pioneering work reconstructing the facial appearance of ancient people using the evidence provided by their remains. Some were victims of sudden death, like the Minoan priest and priestess crushed in an earthquake while carrying out a human sacrifice around 1700 BC, or Lindow Man, the Iron Age body found in a peat bog near Manchester in 1984. Others have died peacefully, like Seianti, an Etruscan woman whose remains are in the British Museum, and some are famous, like the great King Midas of Phrygia. Facial reconstruction brings together numerous specialists, from dentists to geneticists, archaeologists to radiologists. Here, both archaeologist and medical artist explain the historical circumstances surrounding each body, and give first hand accounts of the search for evidence to recreate a likeness. The historical implications of such work are revealed in their confirmation that the body in tomb II at Vergina was that of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. Step-by-step illustrations accompany a full explanation of technique.