Digital Image Depicts 30,000-Year-Old Egyptian

News April 3, 2023

(Moacir Elias Santos and Cícero Moraes)
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Egypt Facial Reconstruction
(Moacir Elias Santos and Cícero Moraes)

CAIRO, EGYPT—Live Science reports that archaeologist Moacir Elias Santos of the Ciro Flamarion Cardoso Archaeology Museum and his colleagues have created a 3-D digital approximation of the face of a man who lived in Egypt some 30,000 years ago. Analysis of the remains, which were uncovered in Egypt’s Nile Valley at a site known as Nazlet Khater 2 in 1980, suggests the man stood about five feet, three inches tall and was between the ages of 17 and 29 at the time of death. A stone ax was also recovered from the grave. “The skull, in general terms, has a modern structure, but part of it has archaic elements, such as the jaw, which is much more robust than that of modern men,” said team member and graphics expert Cícero Moraes. The researchers used photogrammetry to combine images of the skull and produce a black-and-white depiction of the man with his eyes closed, and an artistic rendering showing him with hair and a beard. Read the original scholarly article in OrtogOnline. To read about a 13,400-year-old cemetery in the Nile Valley, go to "The Roots of Violence."

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