Scientists have reconstruct face of a Mesolithic teenager, ‘Dawn,’ to show what people looked like around the year 7,000 BC.
The teenager with the 9,000-year-old scowl: Scientists reconstruct the face of ‘angry’ Mesolithic girl to reveal that men AND women looked more masculine in stone age
To do this, researchers took CT scans of the skull, which was discovered back in 1993 at Teopetra cave, according to National Geographic.
Then, they used a 3D printer to make an exact replica based on the real measurements.
Sculptor Oscar Nilsson then affixed pegs along the face, to show how thick her flesh was in certain regions, and map out the different features.
The process incorporates data from the skull along with information about the general population in the region at the time she was alive.
The incredible new reconstruction was unveiled at the Acropolis Museum on Friday, by a team of researchers from the University of Athens.
The last time anyone looked on Dawn’s face was 9,000 years ago.
Now the teenager can be seen again, after scientists reconstructed her face to show what people looked like in the Mesolithic period, around 7,000 BC.
And, according to the experts, this included more ‘masculine features’ – for both men and women.
It’s thought that Dawn (known as Avgi, in Greek) was around 15-18 years old when she died.
Avgi has very unique, not especially female, skull and features,’ Swedish archaeologist and sculptor Oscar Nilsson explained, according to National Geographic.
The sculptor has previously brought several ancient humans back to ‘life’ through stunning reconstructions, including an 11-year-old Athenian girl named Myrtis.
But, unlike Myrtis, some of Dawn’s features are strikingly different than those common today.
‘Having reconstructed a lot of Stone Age women and men, I think some facial features seem to have disappeared or “smoothed out” with time,’ Nilsson said.
‘In general, we look less masculine, both men and women, today.
Discovered in a cave in 1993, the girl was named Avgi – Greek for Dawn – because she lived during what is considered to be the dawn of civilization.
Theopetra Cave, in the Thessaly region, was first inhabited about 100,000 years ago, according to the Culture Ministry.
Stone tools from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods have been discovered, as well as pottery from the Neolithic period.
Dawn is on display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
