Evison, M.P. (1998). Computer generated facial reconstruction in archaeology. The Archaeologist, 31, 18-9. Sr ring 1998 No. 31 Evison, M.P. (1998). Computer generated facial reconstruction in archaeology. The Archaeologist, 31, 18-9. COIllputer generated facial reconstruction in archaeology Martin P Evison ,. F acial reconstruction h as tra d iti n extend ing back to the Victo rian e ra when the melhod wa s uSed to ｮ ｾ｣ｯｮ＠ truet the ph ysiognomy o f famou s persona ges, SU d 1 as th com poser J harm Sebastian Bach. The occasional arch a o logical recons tru cti o n w as a lso a ttempted at tha t tim. ' , The J}' pJice tio n of fa cial reconstruction in for ns ic cases \\' ,l S notably p loneered by Gerasi mnv tIl Russia in th e 19305, ,1 5 de p icted in the film Gorky Park. Latterly, Richa rd €< ve has establish d himself as Brit in 's lea ing expon ent o f faciwl reco nstructIO n, ha vio)'!; adli t'ved it numb r of succ sses iI obtaining idcntincz hon in hig h profile forensic cases, as w 'I1 a" ha ving app li ed the techniq ue in v riety of Jfch ae0lt' gica l investig ations usi n g cl assical and rehisro i. c m ater'"I , su h as Lindow Ma n and th e Manches ter m ummi es (Prag " e<l ve 997). F" cia l reconstructi on relies on the limited relat ionsh ip b o[yveen the sha pe of the lace Jnd the u nd erl y ing bone structu re. tvleas ure men t5 o f tissu e ､ Ｂ＠ ｰ ｴｨ ｾ＠ a t (e ta in ' land mark' sites on the skull h a e bee n collected since the Vi cto rian era. These d a taset. tend to be small and the accuracy and p rcClsLOn of the measurcm« nts is fa r fr om ideal. As the' are collected from ca dav ' 1'5, the y can I ad to a less thnn lifelike a ppea ran ce in the fi ni.s hed recon_t ru ctiOll. he sh'1 pe ot certa in parts of the rae , - uch as the eves, the tip of the nos an d the lip:-- c:a nno t be p red i J ed fr om th sku ll end are large ly gu esswork Unfor tu nate ly the -e are fea tures which are p robab ly im po rtant in iacial recogniti n. In the tra d itional 'plas tic' m thod, clay or i1 s imila r male ric I is pp lied tn th skull (o r a ca st o f the sku ll) to the ap pro pria te tissue dep ths and the c ative s kill uf the scul ptor is then used to fi n is h o ff th reconstru ction (fig 1) In a rci1ae logical reco ns tru ctio ns, wh t;!re the p ri mary p u rpose is not iden tifi ca tion, s ubstanh al co melle embe lli shmen t o f th is b,'1 sic faCi a l image is perm issible or even d es irable. It is mpo rta n t to rem mber that a facial recons tru ction is fa r fr om a ll exac t like ness, althou g h it sh u ld sli tl bea r a resemb lance to the individu al d uring li f - cl n in fideli ty eas ilyov r ooked w hen archaeologi -31 recon -tru tions are p resentt;!d to an eage r p ub lic. Whil li t ca nno t be U! ed as a m ans oj positive id entifica tion, it may be poss ible to lise iacial recon stru ction Lo s tabIish, fo r ex m p e, whe ther th e facial appearance reconstruc ted from an in terred skd eton is con -i -tenL w ith it belonging to the ind ividual d e picted in an asso cia ted portra it or sculpture, as Richard ave ha . demonstrated (Prag & . leave 1Y97, l72-200) ft i:; d oub tful, however, w hether fac ial recons tru ct-ion can be used to I Fig 1 Plllsticforcl1sicfacial rl!constl"llctioJ1. White dots illdiCilte site o/tisslle depth 'Itlndlllarks' 18 Fig 2 Experimental 3-D compllterised image fro/IJ n 200-year-old al'cilaeologiw/ skeleton reconstructed usillg 'emacia ted ' data Fig 3 Ex perimental 3-D cOlllpu teri cd image fro m CI 2IJO-ycar-o ld archaeological skeleton recon5trllctea Iising '()bese' dnta The ａ ｲ ｣ ｨ｡ｾｵ ｬ ｯ ｧｬｳｴ＠ Evison, M.P. (1998). Computer generated facial reconstruction in archaeology. The Archaeologist, 31, 18-9. establish a fam ilial rela tionship betwl'cn buried ske letons (Prag &: Nea ve 1997, 105- 145). Whi lst p la sti c reconstructio n.s r mail1 the method of choice for archaeological purp oses, develop m en ts in 3-D g rap hica l com pu ting mar grad ually supers d e p las tic meth ods, especi IIv ;n th t; > forens ic fi eld (Va nezisl't u ]989, Tyrrell I al ompulerised methods rely on the u se of 3-D lase r scann r:- w h i h ",.. ill prod u c d igitised J - ' virmal images' of 1997) skulls in the compu ter .. t p reSt:' n t, the tra d ihonal lissue dep th5 are then app li ed by co mputer p rogramme and a composite facial image is superimp os J uv er tht:' th reedimens ional shape . The 01 da ta continues in u se an d recuns tru lio ns son letimes len d to resemb le the composite Image, even tho ugh th u nd erl ving sku ll s hape is different. Rese rch a t Sheffil'ld Un iversity in vo lves capture of larger and more pre cise tissue dep th d atasets from medical imag ing equipment, and the u c of 3-D graph ics compu ti ng and the Internet to construct and present faci al im ages . Com pu ter systems can produce a reconstruction in a m atter o f m,i nutes, ""hpr as a pl astic re et ns truc tion ca n ta ke up to a w e k. Fur hermo re, comp u te ri ed reconstructio ns of[ r more fle xible presentation of the image, allowing ' m orp h ing' between slim an d obese rt'cnn,·tructiofls (Fig s 2 and 3), or incl usion o f a light sou rce and p rcsenta l"i on in 3-D on the In ternet (Fi g 4). If osmetic cr a nce rncnt of the reconstruction is required, this can be achieved u sing d igi tal ar t software. Item tively, a hard copy o f the reconstru ction can be generated [rom a mi lling mach int' or 5t r o!ith og raph (for laser ).;enerated 3-D plasti c facsimiles) which ca n then be finished by co metic ar tis t. fr g mentary and d istorted skeletal mate rial, and bone elemen ::. r t' some times borrowed fr om other skulls. Clearly, th e d eg ree of rese mblance li ke ly to ,b e p ro d uced under these circum sta nces is minimal. Shou ld this be mad e clear to the public? Thert-' is scope for much mui' research, fr om such diverse field s as virmal rea lity, art histo ry, and the: psy chology of fa cial expression and r ' cognihon, before facial recons truction can he est used lo crea te emp athy with those whose liv e. w e h o pe to portra y. M ARTIN P. VISON Department of Forpnsic P a th lo gy, The U rriv ers ity of She ffield, Th.e Medico-Leg'l l Ce n tre, V a e ry Street, Shcffiel. , 37E, V K . E m ail: rna rl irI @fo rens ic. shd .ac. uk Vi si t: i Itlp : II fore nsic.sheLac. uk. Acknowl e d g ements Res .arch in t(i fo rensic fac ial re cons tru ction at Sh effield Un iversity is su pported by the Hom O ffice. REFEREN CES AND FURTHER Rb\O ING Ev ison, M r , 1996 30 b ciai reco stru c h on, Asscnrbiagt (tile Sheffield Pnst, raduatc illternet j(Jt,ma ofArchawlog1jJ, 1 (http:// www .shef. ac.uk / - assern / e vison.html ) Prng. - Ne a ve, R 1997 ｍｮｫｩｴｬｾｦ｡Ｚ･Ｎｳ＠ CViIlCHCC . Britis h ｜ｾ ｵ ｳ･ ｵ ｭ J1si'lgfrnCIIS'L nlld arcillJe(1/og ical Press, Lon d n Tvrrel , A j, [ vison, M p, CI a m berla in, A T and Green, M A, 1997 Forensic three-dimenSIo nal fac ial recons truch n : historical review and contemporary develop m e n ts, lounral of Forensic Scic'lCes, 42(4), 653--tiol \IV hi t progress is being made with the te d-mical aspec ts of facial reconstructio n, li tt l,· tho u g ht 5 ems to be gi ven to the pr senta tion ot facial re const ru ctlO ns to the p ublic. Very often, archaeologi al reconslru cti oI 5 arc ｢ｾ ｳ･､＠ on Vanezis, r, Bl o wes, R W, Linney, A 0 , Ta n, A C, Richa rds, Ra nd cav e R, 1989 A p p li cati on. of 3-D com p uter gra phiCS for fa cia l reco nst ru ctio n a n d com pa r iso n wi th sculpting techn iq ues, Fo rcllsie Sf'lCIICC intematia,wi, 42, 69-84 Fig 4 image with point light souree placed on the illternet Ｈｨ ｴｰ Ｚ Ｏｦｯｲ ･ｮｳｩ｣Ｎｨ ｾ ＨＮ ｡｣Ｎ＠ ukliaci9 7. w rl) Srnng 1 9 i'-iumber 31