The reconstructed face of a Neolithic woman revealed that Maltese females bear a striking resemblance to their prehistoric ancestors, according to experts.

She lived and died in the surrounding area and we will be keeping her in her home

The virtual model, commissioned by Heritage Malta, was based on 3D scans of a prehistoric skull excavated at the Xagħra Stone Circle in Gozo, which local archaeologists estimate dates back roughly 5,600 years.

“Someone who knew this woman 5,600 years ago would recognise her in this reconstruction,” Caroline Wilkinson, chief facial anthropologist at the University of Dundee, told Times of Malta.

Prof. Wilkinson is best known for her celebrated reconstruction of King Richard III of England – based on the king’s skeleton which was found under a car park in Leicester.

Katya Stroud, Heritage Malta’s prehistoric sites’ curator, applauded the results and said the project had succeeded in putting a face to the island’s prehistoric temples which she felt had lacked a human element.

“Information on our Neolithic buildings and pottery is widespread but very little is known about the people themselves. We wanted to show that our ancestors were not so different from us,” Ms Stroud said. Prof. Wilkinson, speaking over the phone from her lab in Dundee to explain the painstaking process, said the Neolithic skull, affectionately referred to as “The Malteser” by the research team, belonged to a woman estimated to have been between 25 and 40 years old and thought to have died of natural causes.

Asked about the reconstruction’s margin of error, Prof. Wilkinson said comparative tests had shown that over 70 per cent of the face had exhibited less than two millimetres of error, with the greatest room for error being in the area around the ears, making the reconstruction “a virtual gateway to prehistoric Malta”.

“Of course, there are limitations such as hairstyle and eye colour, but we’re very confident in the accuracy of the representation,” she added, reacting to comments from readers posted at timesofmalta.com that the image was “generic”.

Unlike Prof. Wilkinson’s other “high profile” reconstructions, portraits of the Neolithic woman did not exist so the woman’s facial contours were designed using a delicate process known as tissue depth analysis, which projects layers of muscle and tissue, based on the woman’s age and ethnic group, on to a model of the skull. Hands-on software allowed the research team to apply the layers of tissue to the virtual image by hand while viewing the results in a series of 3D projections on specialised screens.

Prof. Wilkinson said since no data existed on prehistoric facial structures, the woman’s face was based on contemporary data compiled from other Mediterranean countries.

“The face is based on the widely accepted assumption that [anatomically] we haven’t changed very much. We also took into account things like diet and lifestyle and went on the advice of local historians and archaeologists for issues such as hair and skin colour,” Prof. Wilkinson said.

The skull and the 3D rendering will be permanently exhibited at the Ġgantija visitors’ centre, less than a kilometre away from where the skull was originally discovered.

Ms Stroud said: “She would have visited the temples and known this place well. She lived and died in the surrounding area and we will be keeping her in her home.”

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