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Lately I've been in the business of reconstructing portraits from ancient skulls. Here are two samples of my work:
Mechta-Afalou Man from northwest Africa
Jebel Sahaba Man from northern Nubia
Does anyone know where I can find good profile views of predynastic Egyptian crania so I can reconstruct them like I did these?
astenb Member # 14524
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You should post the skulls along with this.
Truthcentric Member # 3735
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Jebel Sahaba:
"Mechtoid":
Swenet Member # 17303
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From what I can see, eyeballing the pic, the Jebel Sahaba cranium seems ortochnathous, the only protrusion that occurs is in the alveolar regions. That cranium is tilted, the profile of that reconstruction should therefore be as straight as that of the other reconstruction. The same goes for the frontal bone of the cranium from Jebel Sahaba. Its not as sloping you've depicted it in your reconstruction. You can tilt images back to a normal position by using image editing software.
Truthcentric Member # 3735
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^ I dunno, the Sahaba skull looks pretty prognathous to me even when you rotate it as you suggested.
Swenet Member # 17303
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How far did you tilt it, and what indication did you use to the conclusion that it was in ''normal'' position?
It might still be prognathous in overal profile when tilted, I didn't test it, but I doubt the jaws protude as much as your reconstruction initially suggested.
Swenet Member # 17303
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^Another Mesolithic cranium from Sudan, but this one is placed in a more natural position. I suggest you use positioning already used by professionals so you have some sort of indication on how much you should tilt that image to a ''normal'' position.
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Interesting stuff, Truth. Though I believe reconstructing skulls can be difficult without knowing anatomical constructs like facial musculature based on the bones. It would be a hell of a lot easier if these were mummies, but bones is a toughy. By the way, are you aware of the Metchtoid skulls having close affinity to modern Dogon people??
The Explorer Member # 14778
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This is just typification. The Afalou crania showed diverse patterns which may explain why different studies seem to draw different conclusions about them. Groves (1999) analysis seemed to suggest that Afalou specimens displayed what Groves himself passed off as an indicator of "negroid" qualities, yet in another report, c/o Genoves (1990), the Afalou supposedly "could not be considered either Negro or San". Likewise, a number of even older studies show inconsistencies about the extent to which these specimens may or may not exhibit so-called "negroid" qualities.
And how does one adjudge skin tones from the bones at any rate, as reflected in Truthcentric's renderings?
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