Accurate appearance of famous ancient people

The technology now exists that enables scientists to analyse the skulls and bones of dead people and reconstruct their facial features.  Does anyone know of any online sources concerning the reconstruction of famous historical figures?  I watched a show on tv the other day where they reconstructed the face of Saint Nicholas.  Just wondering what other famous faces they have reconstructed or are considering reconstructing.  It would be interesting to see how the modern reconstructions compare to old paintings, statues, and written descriptions of these peoples appearance.

i know from a the skull they can reconstruct the face (mainly the nose)

but how do they know if he died fat or skinny from his skull?!

and the color of his skin and eyes and hair

or these are just assumptions?.

Yes, this is the sort of stuff I was talking about.  Does anyone know of any others that have been done or are planned being done?

Prag and Neave were the pioneers of facial reconstruction.  They wrote a book about they're work:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0890967849/102-5770815-7998 539?v=glance&n=283155

I think they took a stab at Agamemnon,  Phillip II of Macedon, some Etruscan chick, etc..

Skulls can tell alot about facial features and skull shapes combined with that can trace someone to quite a specific geographical area, Its possible to tell Irish from Germans and Punjabis from Tamils this way, though never 100% accurate. You just take an average of the people in that geograpical area with the same or hightly similar skull/facial features. So you get the wrong shade of medium olive, not a big deal.
The Americas would the place that poses the biggest challenge when trying to guess the tone of people who's skull suggest they are say half European half African, but again, you can take an average from people who are of that same basic ancestrial mix and get a most likely guestimate.
The more generations of intermixing and with various amerindian and even Asians (many Japanese and Koreans migrated to Brazil the US in particular in the 1800s), the more complicated it gets, but also the closer to the present making it easy to compare with living close relatives. The further back in time you go, the less intermixing, and this the easier it becomes.


Edited by Cywr