Dark hair and beard, light blue eyes, a light complexion and a scar on his head—this is what the 50-year-old man looked like nearly 8,000 years ago when his head was placed on a wooden stake during an ancient ritual. The man’s remains were found in what was once a prehistoric lake in Sweden, and now—thanks to renowned forensic artist and sculptor Oscar Nilsson—we have a rough idea of what he looked like in life.
In 2012, the remains of at least 11 Stone Age adults and an infant were found in Motala, a municipality in eastern-central Sweden. Only one of the adult human skulls had a jaw, while the jaw bones of wild animals—including bears, boar and deer—were found alongside the humans in the gravesite. Additionally, two of the skulls had been placed on stakes in the water, which archeologists now believe to be part of an ancient ritual or tribute to prominent people. Thus, the jawless man Nilsson reconstructed was likely a village leader with high status.
For the reconstruction, which took approximately 240 hours, Nilsson first had to recreate the man’s jaw based on measurements of his skull. Luckily, researchers were able to obtain DNA data from six skulls, including this man’s, enabling Nilsson to exploit that data for age, eye, skin and hair color. Historical accounts, experience and general forensic reconstruction techniques informed Nilsson as he pieced together the more artistic attributes of the man, such as hairstyle, wrinkles, and the wild boar clothing he is depicted in.
Evidence of a head wound on the skulls in the gravesite is obvious, but it is not what killed the man, nor anyone else in the grave. The head wounds, about 1-inch long, found on this man and a few others showed signs of healing. Nilsson even added scar tissue to the wound to provide a more accurate visual of how the healing wound looked at the time of his death.
“It is an exciting time from history that we can bring to life. It's great that we get to show what our closest neighbors from another time looked like,” said Hannah Gruffman, Culture and Leisure Manager at Charlottenborg Castle, the museum in Motala that houses the reconstructed Stone Age man.
Now that the Stone Age man has a face, Nilsson is working with a female skull found at the same gravesite. While the man’s DNA told Nilsson he had light attributes, the female’s DNA indicates she was blonde but, as opposed to the man, darker-skinned. Nilsson aims to finish the reconstruction of the woman next summer, at which time she will also go on display at Charlottenborg Castle.
Photo: Hannah Gruffman and Oscar Nilsson beside the reconstructed Stone Age man. Credit: Motala kommun.