MSFS Day 9: Facial Reconstruction

Notes from the Field School: July 31st, 2016

Deb leads students in a facial reconstruction.

Because yesterday was such a long day, we allowed the students to sleep in a bit before today's scheduled events. The late morning was filled with a lecture from Deb about the different approaches and methods used for facial reconstruction, both of forensic and anthropological interest. She gave students some of the clay used in reconstruction so that they could get a (literal) feel for the materials used in traditional facial reconstruction.

Yummy lunch!

She went on to describe the different methods and held a discussion with the students about the intersection between science and art that exists when doing facial reconstructions. Karl and Dario chimed in from time to time to share their experiences in this area. Deb also showed the students a skull that they would be working on as a group in the afternoon using the clay she had passed around earlier.

Lunch was a delicious pasta in a tangy white sauce with meat and mushrooms. This was accompanied by bread, salami, croquettes that were made of eggplant, and cheese-stuffed, pan-fried meatballs with caramelized onions. As is no surprise to frequent readers, this meal was delicious!

Students were excited about the meatballs.

After lunch, the students began doing the facial reconstruction of the skull with Deb's assistance. Below is the before pictures of the skull that they would be using. The skull came with a story about the life of the individual from which it was modeled. This individual was a male born in Holland in 1921 who died at the age of 83. He was supposedly of royal descent with Dutch, French, and Belgian parentage.

First, they applied the tissue markers to the skull using a non-destructive glue that dissolves in acetone. They carefully cut each of the markers to the appropriate depth, numbered them, and glued them to the skull.

Students cut and apply tissue markers for the facial reconstruction.

Two views of the skull with tissue markers applied.

Sam, Emily, and Erin display their work after applying the tissue markers.

Mari cuts pieces from a
block of clay.

Breane measures the skull for creating the lips.

Students measured cranial features in order to sculpt the lips and the areas around the eyes. Clay was added to the skull and sculpted to fit the tissue depth markers. Over the course of several hours, the student labored to shape the face into something recognizable. Blue marbles were set into cotton pad placed in the orbits of the skull for eyes and clay was shaped around them to hold them into the proper place.


  

Ruth and Erik prepare the eye sockets to
insert the marbles serving as eyes.

Setting the eyes appropriately for the facial reconstruction.

Ruth puts final touches
on the clay around the eyes.

Eyes set into the skull.

Deb helps Ruth and Erik begin to add the clay up to the tissue markers.

Erik and Ruth show their progress on the facial reconstruction.

The eyes, chin, lips, and brow ridges where slowly built and a bit of texturing was added. There is still a bit more to do before our face is finished.

Breane displays her additions to the facial reconstruction.

Caleb works on the brow ridges and adds details to the eyes.

A hearty dinner after a hard day's work.

Tomorrow, students will add a nose, more texturing, and the final touches. The final product is sure to be spectacular and the students already feel a sense of collective accomplishment as each of their contributions has been coming together for will be an exciting final product.

Dinner was comprised of a breaded and lightly fried chicken cutlet, salad, seasoned tomatoes, pickled mushrooms, small, baked pastry boats containing peppers and breadcrumbs, salami, two kinds of bread, and fruit. The meal was delicious, as always, and we again had excellent company with which to dine and fun conversations about the events of the day.

Written by  Dr. Johnica J. Morrow (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)