Bringing the Dead to Life
Is it possible to visualize a 1,200-year-old Peruvian queen or a medieval murder victim? Using forensic facial reconstruction, history “detective” Oscar Nilsson re-creates what the long dead looked like when they walked the Earth.
Overheard at National Geographic
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Show Notes
Thousand-year-old Peruvian queens and medieval murder victims may seem lost to time, but history “detectives” are on a mission to solve a mystery: What did those people look like? We hear from Oscar Nilsson, a forensic facial reconstructionist who uses a combination of science and art to re-create the faces of our ancestors.
For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard.
Want more?
Oscar Nilsson’s reconstructions of Cheddar Man, Bocksten Man and others can be seen at his website odnilsson.com.
Also explore:
When an explorer uncovered the skeleton of an ancient Peruvian queen in a tomb in Peru, they asked Nilsson to make a recreation of her. Uncover the story here.
8,000 years ago, a man’s bones were used in a ritual in Scandinavia. Take a look at Nilsson’s recreation of him.
For subscribers:
A mother and child were buried in Sweden 4,000 years ago. Read about Nilsson’s recreation of the woman and see what she might have looked like.
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