During the construction of a road in 1987, Scottish workers accidentally uncovered the tomb of a Bronze Age woman. A coffin-like stone tomb, called the chest, contained the skeletal remains of a woman, along with grave goods, including a short-necked clay beaker, a piece of cow bone, and small pieces of flint.
The burial at Achawanich in northern Scotland became known as the Achawanich Glass Tomb. But little was known about the woman nicknamed “Ava” beyond what archaeologists had determined by anthropological analysis. She was between the ages of 18 and 25 when she died, and she was about 1.71 meters tall, according to a study published online on June 22.
Based on her burial, it’s possible that Ava was part of the Bronze Age “bell-beaker” culture common in Europe at this time, known for its distinctive round clay drinking vessels. Now, a new image lets us see what this mysterious woman looks like.
To make a three-dimensional estimate of the face, the researchers used existing computed tomography (CT) scans of Ava’s approximately 3,800-year-old skull. However, according to the study, the skull was missing a mandible, or lower jaw, so the team used CT scan data from living donors to create the final image.
“Thanks to the anatomical, statistical and logical data, it was possible to reconstruct the face even without the lower jaw,” said Cicero Moraes, a Brazilian graphic artist and author of the study.
“Next, I decided to track the facial profile we made using a combination of soft tissue thickness markers that signal skin boundaries,” he explained.
Moraes said the team then performed “anatomical deformation” of the virtual donor and “adjusted the donor’s skull until it was Ava’s skull.”
Source: Port Altele
