Researchers bring 2,500-year-old skulls from Tamil Nadu into shape, reconstruct faces
Archeologists and carbon dat9ing had confirmed one of the old civilizations at Keeladi, 12km southeast of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, in 6th century BCE. Now, the paces of at least two men who walked on the planet 2,500 years ago have been reconstructed, TOI reported.
The researchers at Madurai Kamraj University describe the facial features as South Indian with traces of ancestral West Eurasian (Iranian) hunter-gatherers and ancestral Austro-Asiatic people. The research was conducted with the help of
Liverpool John Moores University
in the UK.
The skulls were found at Kondagai, a burial site around 800m from the main excavation site. Further DNA studies are needed to pinpoint the ancestry based on genetics, the researchers added.
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'We used a computer-assisted
3D facial reconstruction
system to rebuild the facial musculature and estimate facial features following anatomical and anthropometrical standards,' said Professor Caroline Wilkinson, director of Face Lab, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. The lower halves of the faces were more guesstimate; reconstruction of the upper halves was more accurate. 'As the lower jaws of the skulls were missing, we used orthodontic standards to estimate the shapes of the mandibles from cranial measurements and planes,' Prof Wilkinson told TOI.
The facial reconstruction was done using forensic guidelines created from the study of clinical images of living people. Following the CT scan images of the skulls, the researchers estimated the tissue depth at various points of the skulls following published data of modern south Indians.
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They then used digital sculpting to recreate muscle, fat and skin while the placement and size of facial features (eyes, nose and mouth) were estimated based on the skulls' characteristics and anatomical relationships. The colours and texture to the skin, hair and eyes were assigned using a photographic database.
'It is 80% science and 20% art,' said professor G Kumaresan, department of genetics,
Madurai Kamaraj University
, which scanned and sent images of the skulls to Liverpool. He said the reconstructed faces, along with DNA data, will help trace the ancestry of Tamils who lived in the Sangam age.
In May, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) asked its archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishna, who unearthed the Sangam age brick structure at Keeladi in 2015-16 and dated the site to 8th century BCE, to revise his report quoting unnamed experts who said it could be no older than the 3rd century BCE. The site has been at a tussle between the Centre and the state.
The Tamil Nadu state archaeology department took over the excavation from ASI in 2018 following a court order. IT has since retrieved 29 radiocarbon dates between 6th century BCE and 2nd century CE at Keeladi.
Researchers from Madurai Kamaraj University are analysing DNA from the Kondagai urns in collaboration with the department of genetics at Harvard University in the US.
'Work is in progress to obtain a large number of DNA markers and compare them with global reference populations to understand the routes of migration and admixture of the ancient inhabitants of Kondagai and Keeladi,' Kumaresan said.
Most of the skeletons found at the burial ground were of people aged around 50 years, researchers said.
'There are many criteria such as dental wear patterns, expression of sutural lines, presence of arthritic lesions and general size of the bone that can tell us about age,' said anthropologist Veena Mushrif Tripathy from Deccan College in Pune. She studied the bone remains at Kondagai and Kodumanal.
'The stature estimation is feasible for only 11 skeleton remains at Kondagai. Though it is insufficient to measure the height of the entire Kondagai population, the average height of males was 170.82cm (5ft 7') while females was 157.74 cm (5ft 2'), which is comparable to Kodumanal where stature estimation was conducted on five skeletal remains,' she added.
Researchers identify the sex of the skeleton remains based on pelvic bone and skull morphology.
'Though reconstructing faces is common throughout the world, in South India, we have attempted it for the first time at Keeladi,' said archaeologist K Rajan, advisor to the Tamil Nadu department of archaeology.
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