Scientists Recreate Face Of 9,000-Year-Old Greek Teenage Girl

A compelling recreation has been made after scientists came across remains in a cave in Greece. With the help of CT scans and 3D-printing, an international team of scientists have constructed a silicone recreation of what is believed to be a Greek teenage girl from the Mesolithic period.  

Meet Avgi, which is Greek for Dawn, who was named that due to living in 7,000 BC, which is considered to be the dawn of civilization. Researchers reveal that her bones indicated that she was just 15 at her time of death, however, her teeth suggest she may have been 18. Studies from the University of Athens suggest the girl had a protruding jaw, likely caused by chewing on animal skin to make soft leather, which was a common practice during that period. She is also believed to have suffered from anemia, lack of vitamins, and possibly scurvy.

Found in Theopetra Cave, in the central Greek region of Thessaly, Dawn joins a series of Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic discoveries that have also been made there. According to the Culture Ministry, this region was first inhabited 100,000 years ago. Funny enough, the recreated Greek girl displays a displeased expression, with orthodontics professor Manolis Papagrikorakis telling Reuters that “It’s not possible for her not to be angry during such an era.”

The silicone reconstruction of her face was created from a terracotta mold of her head, involving the work of an international team, and a Swedish laboratory specializing in human reconstructions, according to BBC.

According to Reuters, an archaeologist working on the project says the discovery is a very important one for history, and that it was important scientifically that she belonged to this period, as its existence in Thessaly had been questioned. “Now, we have not only located the Mesolithic era but we also located real people that lived there.”

This intricate process and the success of it enables conclusions to be made about how our facial features have changed over time. Swedish sculptor and archaeologist Oscar Nilsson, who worked on the reconstruction, told National Geographic: “Having reconstructed a lot of Stone Age women and men, I think some facial features seem to have disappeared or ‘smoothed out’ with time. In general, we look less masculine, both men and women, today.”

Today, Dawn is on display at the Acropolis Museum in the Greek capital of Athens, said to be the birthplace of democracy.