Forensic Facial Reconstruction and Its Contribution to Identification in Missing Person Cases

Abstract

The earliest attempts to reconstitute the face from the skull so far recognised appear to arise from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) culture of circa 11,000-8000 BP (Settegast, 1990) centred on Jericho and adjacent regions of Jordan and the West Bank (Fig. 28.1). Archaeologists interpret these objects as having played a role in funerary, ancestor-worship, or similar such rites. These reconstructions were completed by modelling a facial surface in plaster. The eyes and eyelids were often replaced with cowry shells, and the skin complexion and facial features - including moustaches - were painted onto the plaster surface. The reconstructions are described as 'typized and conventional' and are not believed to represent reconstructions of ante-mortem appearance, beyond 'some features determined by the bony framework' (Strouhal, 1973, p.231). Nine millennia were to pass before the first scientific attempts to reconstruct ante-mortem appearance were to arise.