University researchers have analyzed the remains of a 700-year-old skeleton and reconstructed his face to show what he may have looked like while he was alive.
The project is part of a joint effort between Cambridge University’s Division of Archaeology and the University of Dundee Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification. The researchers have begun to analyze remains and burial sites of about 400 burials on the property of what used to be the Hospital of St. John, a charity for the poor and sick, a Cambridge news release said.
The first skeleton has been comprehensively analyzed and reconstructed, yielding the following information: He was just over 40 years old when he died; he worked hard and had an old, healed head injury; he ate a lot of meat and fish (possibly because he worked in a job that gave him access to meat, which would have been rare for the poor in that time); and his tooth enamel stopped growing twice when he was young, suggesting famine or sickness.
Scientists think the 700-year-old man must not have had a family, to have ended up at St. John’s.
The project is part of the “After the Plague” project, which plans to analyze all of the skeletons found in the graveyard.
The man known as Context 958’s virtually restored face was revealed during the Cambridge Science Festival.
Twitter was “fascinated” by the reconstruction and made some comparisons to familiar faces of today.
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