Researchers may recreate face from second skull

University of Otago researchers who reconstructed the face of a 2500-year-old Anatolian peasant woman look likely to rebuild the face of a man around a skull found in the same ancient, buried city in Turkey.

They are also refining their ground-breaking face-building technique to develop a database of skull measurements from living people, to ensure their work adds even more flesh to a sometimes bony past.

Senior lecturer in anatomy and structural biology Dr George Dias said they would look to data gathered from living subjects to further refine the mathematical model used to determine soft-tissue facial depth.

That work would continue as Dr Dias prepared for new work on more remains unearthed from the Kültepe archaeological site, having completed work on the peasant skull due to be sent for display in Turkey next week.

That reconstruction work was part of an ongoing collaboration with Anadolu University, in Turkey.

Colleagues there wanted a man's skull reconstructed, and he was likely to visit to see the candidate, Dr Dias said.

As reported last week, the Otago team used silicon skin, real hair and a mathematical model to recreate the woman's face from a skull found at an ancient city near modern Kayseri.

Her remains suggested she was between 40 and 50 years old when she died.

She had osteoarthritis in most of her joints, which was probably linked to strenuous daily activities.

Associate Prof Handan Üstündag, of Anadolu University, said the Otago team used a new, more accurate method to give life to the bony find.

"A skeleton is reminiscent usually only of death.

However, the science of anthropology or human bioarchaeology deals with life in the past," Assoc Prof Üstündag, a biological anthropologist, said.

"For that reason, a real image of a person is a key to understand past people were also alive once upon a time.

They were ordinary people and had a life story just like us."

Excavation director Prof Fikri Kulakoglu, of Ankara University, said the skull was found in a burial site in a regionally significant city that will take a few hundred years to excavate.

Kültepe was the capital of the Kanish Kingdom and Assyrian Trading Colonies in Anatolia.

It was an important trade and administrative centre at the crossroads of east-west and south-north trade routes.

The Otago team that worked on the skull was Dr Dias, Louisa Baillie, Shane Soal, Associate Prof Inguruwatte Premachandra, Neil Waddel, James Chang, and Mustafa Mustafa.