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Two faces have been reconstructed from skulls which may be 700 years old after remains were found during excavations in an Edinburgh cemetery.
Forensic scientists used high-tech software to reconstruct the faces of the remains found at the medieval Leith site, dating from the 14th to 17th centuries, as part of the Trams to Newhaven project.
The results show how a man and woman aged 35 to 50 might have looked at the time, with early scans suggesting the woman may have suffered from nutritional deficiencies.
The male facial reconstruction was created by Elysia Greenway and the female reconstruction by Viviana Conti, both Masters students at the University of Dundee.
“These fantastic reconstructions help us connect directly with our ancestors,” said Edinburgh City Council archaeologist John Lawson.
“Often as archaeologists we only see the physical remains, but the work undertaken by forensic artists at the University of Dundee helps to put the flesh back, so to speak, on these remains and in doing so I think of bringing them closer to us today.
The couple used special 3D scanners to build digital versions of the skulls, which were discovered during excavations outside the South Leith Parish Church on Constitution Street last summer.
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A team of archaeologists were working to remove any human remains that might be affected by the tram work – and they unearthed more than 360 bodies dating from 1300 to 1650.
Greenway and Conti recorded vlogs for the project’s YouTube page to discuss the process.
“Elysia and Viviana did a great job reconstructing the faces of these people,” said Lynn Morrison, senior lecturer in forensic art at the University of Dundee.
“This internship gave them an excellent opportunity to develop the skills acquired during the course and to gain valuable experience in the field. I am delighted to see how well they are doing. “
When did humans start to wear clothes?
To expand into the cold hinterlands of Europe and Asia, our ancestors had to warm up. The earliest possible evidence of clothing in ancient humans is stone tools found at archaeological sites like Gran Dolina in the Spanish mountains of Atapuerca (associated with Homo predecessor and dated around 780,000 years ago), or in Schöningen in Germany (Homo heidelbergensis, around 400,000 years ago), which may have been used to prepare animal skins.
We see clearer evidence from Neanderthals, who lived 400,000 years ago: The diagram of Neanderthal arm musculature suggests that they usually performed tasks like preparing the skin. Despite bodies more suited to the cold than ours, a 2012 study estimated that Neanderthals might have had to cover up to 80% of their body to survive harsh winters.
In modern humans, (homo sapiens), clothing adoption may have left its mark on some hangers: a 2011 study suggested that clothing lice began to genetically diverge from human head lice around 170,000 years ago, suggesting a date to which we started to wear clothes.
In winter, we probably had to cover up to 90% of the body, which is perhaps why we developed more modern-looking clothing than the fur coats the Neanderthals would have worn. About 40,000 years ago, we used needles and awls, made of bone and stone, to create sewn and fitted clothing to keep us warm.
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