Reconstruction of 9,600-Year-Old Skull Completed in Brazil

PIAUÍ, BRAZIL—Live Science reports that a team of researchers led by Moacir Elias Santos of the Ciro Flamarion Cardoso Archaeology Museum has reconstructed the face of a person whose remains were uncovered at Toca dos Coqueiros, an archaeological site in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park. When the remains were discovered in 1997, researchers were divided as to whether they represented a man or a woman who lived about 9,600 years ago. To learn more about the possible appearance of the individual, who has been dubbed “Zuzu,” the team members created a 3-D model of the skull using more than 50 photographs and the process of photogrammetry, and computerized tomography scans of the skulls of living people to fill in missing information. Two images of the skull were completed: one depicts Zuzu as a young man with hair and eyebrows, the other with closed eyes, no hair, and in grayscale, reflecting the lack of information regarding Zuzu’s eye shape and skin color. “It’s a reunion with one of the oldest ancestors of our country,” Santos commented. To read about stone tools uncovered in Serra da Capivara National Park, go to "Destination: The Americas."