Incredible 3D reconstruction reveals how face of a medieval Polish man with dwarfism once looked
An incredible 3D reconstruction has revealed how the face of a medieval Polish man with dwarfism once looked.
Discovered by archaeologists in a cemetery in the small village of Łekno last year, an analysis of the man’s skeletal remains showed that he lived somewhere between the 9th and 11th centuries, was aged around 35-40 and had a form of skeletal dysplasias known as ACH, achondroplastic dwarfism.
Keen to try and work out how he looked, scientists turned to Brazilian 3D graphics specialist Cicero Moraes who had previously reconstructed the faces of St. Anthony of Padua, Mary Magdalene, St. Valentine, and a 4,500-year-old Peruvian mummy called the Lady of the Four Brooches.
Uploading skull scans to a 3D photo editing program, Moraes and his team created soft tissue thickness markers and arranged the data on the digitized skull.
Uploading skull scans to a 3D photo editing program, Moraes and his team created soft tissue thickness markers and arranged the data on the digitized skull.
Moraes told Live Science: “To understand the size of other structures such as the nose, ears, mouth and other facial features, we made a series of projections based on measurements taken with CT scans of living people.
“We also imported a tomography of a living human being, a virtual donor, whose skull structure was adapted to the shape of a remains called Ł3/66/90, also modifying the soft tissues.”
The team created two models, one showing the man with hair and a beard and the other of him without hair.
The team created two models, one showing the man with hair and a beard and the other of him without hair.
Both depict the man having an above-average forehead and a sunken bridge on his nose.
Describing the results of his work, Moraes and his team said: “This study presents a computer-based facial approximation of the skull of a male individual suffering from ACH, who died at 30-45 years of age and was buried in Łekno, Poland between the 9th and 11th centuries AD.
Moraes (pictured) has previously reconstructed the faces of St. Anthony of Padua, Mary Magdalene, St. Valentine, and a 4,500-year-old Peruvian mummy called the Lady of the Four Brooches.
“For the approximation procedure, soft tissue data from CT scans and ultrasonic measurements performed on living individuals were used.
“Additionally, the anatomical deformation technique was applied to arrive at the most reliable reconstruction of the dwarf’s appearance.
“To our knowledge, this is the first recreation of a person with achondroplasia, and one of the few showing a head of an individual suffering from a hereditary disease, with dimensions and shape differing from the population average values.”
To read the full research paper click here: HERE.
