The day was very well organised and I enjoyed the fact that it was a small group. I also liked the fact that is was held in the museum so we could see the exhibits during the breaks.
Faces From the Past - Facial Reconstruction
- Learn about reconstructing the faces of the past
- A day in the company of Britain’s two top experts on facial reconstruction
- Watch a practical demonstration of how to create a reconstruction
- Time to enjoy the newly opened Ancient World galleries at the museum
Introduction
‘I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon’ wrote Heinrich Schliemann to the King of Greece in 1876. Faces from the ancient world fascinate us because we feel we are meeting real people, not just dry bones and dusty potsherds. Yet facial reconstruction – putting flesh back on the bones – is more than just an eye-catching display gizmo: it has become a valuable aid for archaeologists and more seriously, for police investigations: with modern techniques, it brings together evidence from many different disciplines clearly and dramatically.
Richard Neave, former director of the Unit of Art in Medicine in Manchester University, and John Prag, now Honorary Professor in the Manchester Museum, have together been responsible for developing facial reconstruction as an archaeological tool. Their most famous collaborations include the face of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, and most recently those very faces from Mycenae on which Schliemann gazed, and many more besides, from Lindow Man in Britain to Egyptian mummies and King Midas.
The day will include talks on the theory and practice of facial reconstruction, a look at some of the reconstructions from the Manchester Museum stores, and a practical demonstration of the techniques.