Meet Dawn. The apparently moody teenager hasn’t been seen for roughly 9,000 years, but thanks to science, her face was reconstructed using a skull found more than 20 years ago. Now people can admire her not-so-smiling visage at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, reported Reuters.
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Dawn (or Avgi in Greek), lived during a time period known as the dawn of civilization (hence her name), the Mesolithic period, which ranges from 8000 B.C. to 2700 B.C., according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Her remains were discovered in 1993 in the Theopetra Cave, located in Thessaly, a region in central Greece.
Analysis of her remains put the girl’s age somewhere between 15 and 18. With a protruding jaw and face that appears to be scowling, it’s hard not to think of Dawn as your typical sullen teen—which she probably was, according to an orthodontics professor who created the silicone reconstruction of the girl’s face. “It’s not possible for her not to be angry during such an era,” Manolis Papagrikorakis told Reuters.
The science team was made up of an endocrinologist, orthopedist, neurologist, pathologist and radiologist who worked with Swedish sculptor Oscar D. Nilsson to recreate the figure, reported National Geographic. On his website, Nilsson states he frequently works with scientists to make 3D and 2D historical reconstructions.
The artist explained to the magazine that scientists first conducted a CT scan of the girl’s skull and then used a 3D printer to make a replica. This ensured the measurements were accurate.
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In an email to Newsweek, Nilsson explained that 18 muscle groups were reconfigured to sculpt Dawn’s facial muscles. There are a total of 43 muscles in our face.
Certain liberties were taken while recreating Dawn’s image. Her skin and eye color, for example, were selected based on what is known about the traits of the region, according to National Geographic. Nilsson told Newsweek that hair, skin and eye color are difficult to nail exactly unless he has access to DNA, which he uses for about half of his reconstructions.
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Nilsson’s biggest challenge was to make Dawn look more feminine as she had several masculine features. “She has also quite an asymmetrical facial skeleton, especially her orbits and the bones surrounding them,” he said.
Many of the Nilsson’s reconstructions hail from the Stone Age. He explained this period is among his favorites to work from because he’s fascinated by the fact that people appeared similar to us despite drastic differences in our environments.
“It is so distant and yet we are so physically alike [to] these people,” he said.
We may not only look alike, we also likely had another thing in common: sully teens.
This article was first written by Newsweek
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