Interesting facial reconstruction of Roman Period 'Merseyside Man'

[Imperial Dave]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-35892795

[Prufrock]

Interesting find, Dave.

[Imperial Dave]

I do like this kind of stuff and the technology is getting better all the time. Ok, so why would someone look much different then and now is not the point for me, its more the tangible connection with the distant past of our ancestors.

[Patrick Waterson]

It does beat staring at a couple of fragmentary eyesockets and wondering what the person would look like.

One caveat with these reconstructions is that they tend to a greater or lesser degree to resemble the person doing the reconstruction.  It is always illuminating to see the results of two or three reconstructors having a go at the same skull - a bit like different radiocarbon dating laboratories coming up with ages for the same article.

On the subject of radiocarbon dating, one notes that in this case a 'chemical analysis' was carried out to determine the seafood content of the subject's diet - lessons of Richard III?