The face of a mysterious woman who died 5,700 years ago known as the ‘Penang Woman’ who lived during the Neolithic or New Stone Age in what is now Malaysia, has been revealed thanks to a scientific reconstruction of her features.
Putting a face on a prehistoric woman
The ‘Penang Woman’ was found in April 2017 in Guar Kepah, northwestern Malaysia, where she was buried after her death, in her late 40s, at the end of the Stone Age.
Although the identity of the woman is unknown, a forensic facial reconstruction has revealed her likeness for the first time in thousands of years and the results have been published in a new academic study.
The team’s corresponding author, Shaiful Idzwan Shahidan, said that with the help of Cicero Moraes, a 3D graphics expert from Brazil, they used the 3D virtual reconstruction method to create the facial features of the Penang woman based on scientific data obtained from a CT scan performed on the skeleton.
“It took us three to four months to get the facial features, which was completed on July 5. “In fact, we were instrumental in reconstructing the facial features of the more than 10,000-year-old Perak Man using the same method last year,” Idzwan said.
“We studied CT scans of modern Malaysians to get a better idea about nasal projection, the size of the lips relative to the skull, the position of the eyeballs and other structures. In addition, we also use the anatomical deformation (or adaptation) technique, in which we take one or more virtual donors and deform their structure in the skull to approximate them. The process has a degree of complexity, but certainly the digital approach we use is much simpler and more accessible than the classic form, which is based on manual sculpture”, explains Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes.
Some of the finds discovered in the archaeological excavations are various organic tracks that contain the element carbon. By measuring the density or radioactivity of the radioactive isotope 14C (radiocarbon), which is found as trace amounts in carbon-containing organic finds, the aforementioned finds and the layers and contexts in which these finds were found can be dated.
The result provides us with a unique window into the past: the closest thing to a face that has remained hidden for millennia. The face includes a wide nose and full lips , but although this is a “meaningful” approximation, it is not an exact replica of the woman.
“We use statistical and structural data to get an idea of what the face would look like in life,” say the experts.
“His age at death is around 40 years old. Dating was estimated based on tooth wear and tooth development, and was also determined by cranial suture. He died about 5,700 years ago, according to the chronometric dating of the shells found inside the burial pit,” the researchers continue. The woman’s cause of death has not yet been established.
The remains of the original Penang Woman are carefully preserved at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as it had to be in a temperature and humidity controlled environment, meaning the skeleton currently on display in the gallery is a replica. of the original.
Referencia: Johary Yap Abdullah, Cicero Moraes, Moktar Saidin et al. Forensic Facial Approximation of 5000-Year-Old Female Skull from Shell Midden in Guar Kepah, Malaysia. Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(15), 7871; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12157871 Received: 5 July 2022 / Revised: 1 August 2022 / Accepted: 2 August 2022 / Published: 5 August 2022
