Digging into the Past: Exploring Historical Sites - Scientists rebuild visage of ancient 75,000-year-old Neanderthal individual.
How did Neanderthals appear? A group of British experts and Dutch artists have been examining this question, resulting in a fascinating look into the past. For the documentary "Secrets of the Neanderthals," a joint project of Netflix and the BBC, the scientists reconstructed the face of a 40-year-old Neanderthal woman using the remains of her skull. Discovered almost 75,000 years ago in a cave in current-day Iraqi Kurdistan, the woman's skull had been preserved, but was flattened due to being pressed under a fallen stone. The researchers carefully transported the fragments to the UK, where a conservator reassembled them by hand over the course of more than a year.
Fossilized pieces from a Neanderthal woman were uncovered in Iraq
In the 1950s, the remains of at least ten Neanderthals were found in the Shanidar Cave, situated 500 kilometers north of Baghdad. In the case of this reconstruction, however, the skull's preservation was doubly challenging: it was completely preserved but pressed flat, likely by a fallen rock. In an interview with the BBC, Graeme Barker, professor at Cambridge University and director of new excavations in Shanidar, described the skull as being "as flat as a pizza." The fragments were transported to the UK and meticulously reassembled.
The rebuilt skull served as the basis for a 3D model, which the Dutch palaeo-artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis employed to recreate a face by adding synthetic layers of muscle and skin. The outcome is mesmerizing: the middle-aged woman had a powerful jaw, a large nose, and eye sockets that were noticeably prominent.
The teeth of the Neanderthal woman were severely worn down
The scientists approached the woman's age estimation by analyzing her teeth, which were almost worn down to the root. Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Cambridge who participated in the project, stated that "when the teeth are worn down like this, chewing is less efficient. So, she can no longer eat normally." Additional symptoms of poor dental health indicated by the researchers include infections and gum disease. This suggests the woman was approaching the natural end of her life. However, it's unclear whether her death was caused by natural causes.
This project provides a captivating picture of how our ancient human ancestors lived and their potential appearance. The documentary "The Secrets of the Neanderthals" is now available on Netflix and can also be streamed in German.
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Source: www.stern.de
