by With her clear blue eyes and a slightly nervous look, the reconstructed bust of Mos’anne – a woman who lived about 10,500 years ago – is scary.
Mos’anne’s bust was born through a close partnership between science and art and was created at Belgian Ghent University as part of a project to examine how the last hunter collectors of the region lived during the Mesolithic era.
“Part of the project is also to understand the genetics of these people, to find out their relatives, etc. and to really translate the science that we do into a wider audience,” the leading researcher of the project, Isabelle de Groote, told AFP.
Scientists chose the skull by Mos’anne-named by public votes in relation to the Meus-Valley in Belgium-for the reconstruction, since it was exceptionally well preserved.
The bones stopped a large amount of preserved DNA, which made it possible to reconstruct the woman with remarkable realism – between the ages of 35 and 60 during her death.
“We also know that in the Mesolithic period it is genetically part of the western hunter collector group,” said de Groote.
Using gene tests, the researchers were able to determine the skin and eye color of the mesolithic woman.
“This group is known to have very dark skin and blue eyes, a bit like Cheddar Man in Great Britain,” she said, referring to the man who lived in Great Britain about 10,000 years ago, whose skeleton was discovered in 1903.
– ‘Mixed emotions’ –
Mos’annes DNA unveiled valuable references to her appearance, but it was the unique skills of the Dutch “Paleo artists” Alfons and Adrie Kennis who brought them to life.
After the twins had received instructions from the researchers, including the instructions for the use of Ocker pigment on the Mos’annes headband, the twins began to form every facial muscle in tone meticulous.
“Most of the reconstruction is to form a character,” said Alfons Kennis from her Darwin-like studio in Arnhem.
“You can carry out a forensic reconstruction … Use the data, apply the muscles, apply the skin, but you don’t get a character,” said Kennis about your artistic process.
The Kennis brothers – whose last name in Dutch means “knowledge” – need about six months to complete a reconstruction.
In the 2000s, they received global recognition, exhibited their work in museums worldwide and presented in specialist publications.
The twins, which have been fascinated by evolution and visual art since childhood, are used to inspire encounters between isolated populations and researchers by archived anthropological images.
“At the first meeting there is nervousness, shyness. People laugh, maybe out of nerves,” said Kennis.
“When a prehistoric ancestor meets it for the first time, they see these mixed feelings … they are these emotions that we want to show.”
A lot about Mos’anne remains unknown. In Ghent, the researchers still analyze them to find out what they would eat.
With her headband with duck springs, golden skin and pierced animal teeth that adorn her ears and necklace, the prehistoric woman seems closer to us than ever.
“It was always my wish to make it more tangible in a way,” said de Groote.
SH/SRG/Ric/Gil
