There are many historical figures you learn about in history lessons; Leonardo Da Vinci, Napoleon, Elizabeth I of England, and many more. While we have learned about their successes and battles, we have only known them by name, we have never been able to truly think of them as human beings not only because of the way they lived but also because we have never actually seen them. There have been portraits drawn and accounts of how they looked like written in many history books, but one thing we haven't seen is their face. Today, however, with all of the technology available to us, many have managed to recreate or reconstruct historical figures faces and full bodies from only the accounts and portraits taken of them. Many of you may have learned about (or heard of) Tutankhamun, who was a nine-year-old Pharoah in 1350 BC and whose tomb was one of the most impossible to discover. Using written accounts and his mummy, a group of scientist lead by Egyptologist, Zahi Hawass, managed to reconstruct the facial and full body features of Tutankhamun. The reconstruction took around 1700 digital cross-referencing imaging and used high-tech digital forensic tools which are normally used for high ranking crime cases. Another famous facial reconstruction is of the ‘Poster boy’ of the French revolution, Maximilien de Robespierre, who influenced many people to join him and speak up for the citizens of France. While He lived many years after Tutankhamun, his facial reconstruction was much harder to make because the scientists’ sources came from portraits and accounts of the man.
Lastly, is St. Nicholas, who many may know him by the name Santa Claus. St. Nicholas, who lived around 270 – 343 AD, was known as a bishop who reverted many Romans to Christianity, which caused many to think of him as a saint. In the 2016 facial construction using his skull and other accounts, scientists found St. Nicholas’s face is very similar to the depictions shown in many Santa Claus drawings today.
Learning about historical figures is one thing, but being able to look them in the eye is another. They become more than just a word on a page, they become human. With today’s advancements in technology, we can hope for more of these facial reconstructions of the past to show us who exactly were our ancestors.
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