Archaeology & Anthropology: "First" Sicilian woman gets face

"First" Sicilian woman gets face

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Category: General History
Forum Name: Archaeology & Anthropology
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URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18256
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Topic: "First" Sicilian woman gets face

Posted By: Leonardo
Subject: "First" Sicilian woman gets face
Date Posted: 02-Mar-2007 at 12:14

'First' Sicilian woman gets face

She lived 14, 000 yrs ago in a cave near Messina

PALERMO (ANSA) - The face of a late Stone Age woman who lived in Sicily has been reconstructed by a sculptor working with anthropologists at Palermo University.

The skeleton of the woman, who lived 14,000 years ago, was discovered in a cave near Messina in 1937, along with the incomplete skeletons of six other humans, presumably her family.

The face was reproduced using reconstruction techniques that calculate the appearance of features from the form of the cranium. The same techniques have been used recently to recreate the faces of Egyptian pharaohs and Italy's own Count Ugolino, a 13th-century Tuscan noble whose bones were found in 2001.

Artistic licence was used when deciding to give the ancient Sicilian the same black hair common in modern women from southern Italy.

Thea, as she has been nicknamed, spent most of her life hunting, or gathering fruit and plants. At 165 cm, she was tall for her time. Experts estimate that when she died she was about 30, much older than the normal life expectancy in the late Stone Age.

"This means that she must have had a healthy and regular lifestyle," said Valerio Agnesi, director of the 'Gemmellaro' museum where the face, along with a recreation of her cave environment, is now on display.

http://ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-02-26_12647819.html - http://ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-02-26_12647819.html

Replies:

Posted By: Dan Carkner
Date Posted: 02-Mar-2007 at 12:44

Interesting, does anyone have a link to the other facial-sculptures they mention?

Posted By: Leonardo
Date Posted: 03-Mar-2007 at 03:16

Originally posted by Dan Carkner

Interesting, does anyone have a link to the other facial-sculptures they mention?

Sorry, I don't.

Posted By: Ellin
Date Posted: 05-Mar-2007 at 20:55

[QUOTE=Leonardo]

'First' Sicilian woman gets face

She lived 14, 000 yrs ago in a cave near Messina

The face was reproduced using reconstruction techniques that calculate the appearance of features from the form of the cranium. The same techniques have been used recently to recreate the faces of Egyptian pharaohs and Italy's own Count Ugolino, a 13th-century Tuscan noble whose bones were found in 2001.

http://ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-02-26_12647819.html%5b/QUOTE - http://ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-02-26_12647819.html[/QUOTE ]

Awesome.. I find this whole technique fascinating and how they can bring the ancients back to life, so to speak. I even bought the book "Meet the Ancestors", a while back, based on skeletal finds in England and how they reconstructed them as mentioned in the technique above. There was a BBC documentary based on the book also (or is that vice versa ??), which I didn't have the good fortune of seeing.. but I had been wondering about this recently, whether similar attempts had been made in Greece (be it by a Greek or non Greek team) and if not, why not.. what are they afraid of ?? what's stopping them ??

and yer, any interesting links, bring them on !!

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"Grk ppl r anarchic & difficlt 2 tame.4 this reasn we must strike deep in2 thr lang,relgn,cult& hist resrvs, so that we cn neutrlz thr ability 2 develp,distinguish
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