University Student Reconstructed the Face of a Man from the Skull of the 18-19 Centuries

12:48, July 6, 2023

Supposedly, he was a young military man and had a position in the community [photo report]

Svetlana Obertas, a student of the Department of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Ural Federal University, under the guidance of Svetlana Sharapova, Associate Professor of the Department, reconstructed the appearance of a male skull from the second half of the 18th century - early 19th century. The remains were found in 2008 during the excavation of the burial ground of the Epiphany Cathedral, which until 1930 was located on the territory of the modern square of 1905. At that time, clergymen and citizens of the city were found in the cemetery.

"This young man - supposedly 25-35 years old, 185 cm tall - was buried on the grounds of the cathedral, from which we assumed that he had a certain position in society. He is definitely not a clergyman because, first, clergymen were consecrated and reburied. Secondly, as I was told, the remains of a uniform were found on this young man," says Svetlana Obertas.

According to the researcher, his nose was broken while he was alive (that's why the tip of his nose is slightly displaced in the reconstruction) and his chin was fractured. The skull was used to reconstruct all the details, as modern techniques allow for maximum accuracy. For example, not only the size and shape of the ears, but also the degree of protrusion and inclination of the ear, adds the researcher.

"The method is quite accurate. We reconstruct up to eighty percent reliably: shape, size, position of ears, nose, eyes, lips, and so on. Twenty percent is the author's contribution: the shape of the hair, eyebrows, eye expression, fullness of the cheeks, wrinkles," the researcher explains.

It took two years and five kilograms of plasticine. The student began to restore the appearance in 2021, when she studied at the Institute of Problems of Northern Development of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Tyumen). There, under the guidance of Elena Alekseeva, a student of Sergey Nikitin, she studied the method of plastic and graphic reconstruction. Today there are no such specialists in Ekaterinburg.

"It took a long time because the reconstruction consists of several stages: conservation, restoration (we cover it with modelling mastic made of colophony and beeswax), description of the skull, craniological study, preparation for reconstruction, photography. We stuff the skull with paper, put a polyethylene strip on the teeth so as not to damage the enamel. We work from the left side of the face, we put plasticine strips 5*2 mm in a certain scheme. I cut the plasticine for two days using a meat grinder with a special filler. Then we take pictures again when he is bald, without eyebrows. Then we put on eyebrows and hair, I made a hairstyle that was characteristic for that time," says Svetlana Obertas.

The reconstruction is the diploma thesis, which Svetlana Obertas defended with the highest marks. Soon the skull will be returned to the depository of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to be reunited with the skeleton. After the bones are described, they will be reburied.

Reference

Svetlana Obertas reconstructed the image of a young man using the method of Mikhail Gerasimov, a world-famous scientist who invented the method of plastic reconstruction of the face from the skull. Before Mikhail Gerasimov, many anthropologists, anatomists and sculptors had worked on this problem, but no one had managed to achieve a portrait likeness in reconstruction. He reconstructed the appearance of more than 200 representatives of the ancient population and created more than 20 portraits of historical figures, including Ivan the Terrible, Tamerlane, Yaroslav the Wise and Andrei Bogolyubsky, Admiral Ushakov and the German poet Friedrich Schiller.

Mikhail Gerasimov trained Sergey Nikitin. Nikitin has created 580 sculptural and graphic portraits for research purposes and 28 sculptural portraits of historical figures, including Sophia Paleolog, Elena Glinskaya, Irina Godunova, Maria Staritskaya, Ilya Muromets, Nestor the Chronicler and the murdered Romanovs. The portraits reconstructed by Nikitin are exhibited in the museums of Moscow, Ekaterinburg, Kiev, Tiksi, Tarusa, Aleksin, Murom, Norilsk and Suzdal.

Anna Marinovich

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office. 
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