Face of a 10,000 -year -old woman with blue eyes revealed by scientists | Science | News
Scientists have rebuilt the face of a 10,000 -year -old woman thanks to advanced DNA technology.
The remarkable image, created by a team from the University of Ghent, in Belgium, shows the face of a woman who lived and died in the Meuse river valley about 5000 years before the construction of Stonehenge.
The remains of the woman, which date from the mesolithic period, were found among the bodies of 30 to 60 other women. Analysis of DNA fragments from her skull reveals that she would have had black hair, blue eyes and a lighter skin than many other Europeans from the same time.
The difference in the coloring “Meuse Woman” was attributed to the fact that she and her tribe were probably nomads who wandered over large distances.
The burial of women seems to have involved complex brutal religious rituals and according to our standards. “We have noticed that the skulls had been scalpped and manipulated with an ocher, perhaps as a funeral ritual. It is also striking that only women were buried there,” said Professor Isabelle de Groote.
She added: “We know what the woman ate, on the basis of the remains of animals. The remains of poles indicate camps. The remains of hazelnuts show that there were Hazel forests.”
The remains of Meuse Woman were found in the caves of Margaux in Belgium in 1988, but it is only now that complete research has been published.
She received a face from the Dutch twin brothers, Adrie and Alfons Kennis, who describe themselves as “paleo-anthropological artists”. They used the detailed results of the Ghent team to rebuild its features, using a combination of resin and silicone.
Over time, it will also have its own name. An online survey offers public members to choose from one of the three names; Margo, Freya or Mos’anne.
People can vote for their favorite name until the end of June using the voting link at the top of the project website.
Its exact cause of death remains a mystery. “It is rare that we saw this in a skeleton because most of the causes of death are not showed on the skeleton, but we do not see a blow to the head in it, for example,” grooved to the Daily Mail.
Meuse’s woman’s woman lived a simple life, in harmony with nature. The groot teacher added: “They used animal parts for clothing, tools and bindings, and can have domestic dogs. Their lifestyle was closely linked to the natural environment, based on seasonal resources and qualified food and hunting. ”
Mesolithic people have not only made stone tools but also bones used, wood, manufacturing weapons such as arcs and arrows as well as harpoons and fish hooks.
At the end of the Mesolithic era, humans had developed advanced skills such as pottery and painting. The hunter-gatherers have started to make containers to store food for future needs.
