Archaeologists reconstruct face of a woman who lived 4,000 years ago

Even if time travel isn’t yet a reality, we can see what a woman from Central Europe looked like 4,000 years ago owing to an amazing team of scientists and modern technology. An archaeology team at the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic recently reconstructed the face of a woman whose remains were interred with five bronze bracelets, two gold earrings, and a three-strand necklace made up of more than 400 amber beads.

As per radiocarbon dating of the cemetery where her bones were found, the woman lived between 1880 B.C. and 1750 B.C. The skeletal remains of the woman who most likely belonged to the Unetice culture was found in a cemetery close to the hamlet of Mikulovice in the northern Czech Republic. According to Live Science, the region and its surroundings are referred to as Bohemia because they were formerly part of a monarchy with the same name before World War I. An amazing collection of artefacts, including around 900 pieces of amber, were found in the cemetery’s 27 tombs. The body of the woman was interred with three bronze sewing needles.

The Unetice culture was a group of peoples from early Bronze Age Central Europe known for their metal objects including axeheads, daggers, bracelets, and torcs, which are necklaces made of twisted metal.

Speaking to Live Science, archaeologist Michal Ernée said, ‘It’s maybe the richest female grave from the whole Unetice cultural region’. Ernée added that the woman wearing the amber also had the best-preserved skull out of all the skeletons found at the cemetery next to Mikulovice and called it a ‘fortunate coincidence’ as the richest cemetery also included bone fragments that may serve as the foundation for rebuilding.

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The finding of well-preserved bones that still had some of the woman’s DNA in them was helpful to scientists as well. The researchers were able to determine that she had brown eyes, brown hair, and a pale complexion. The torso-up model of the woman was created in collaboration by sculptor Ondej Blek and anthropologist Eva Vanková of the Moravian Museum in Brno.