Tuesday, July 11, 2017 
 
 LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND—Forensic experts at Liverpool John Moores University’s Face Lab reconstructed the countenance of a man thought to have lived in England’s East Midlands some 4,500 years ago, according to a report in Live Science. The man’s remains were recovered from Derbyshire’s Liff’s Low bowl barrow during excavations in the 1930s and the 1980s, and have been housed at the Buxton Museum. He had been buried with a beaker-shaped pot and a stone pendant thought to have been worn as a necklace. Previous studies of the bones indicate that the man stood approximately five feet, seven inches tall, and died between the ages of 25 and 30. His cause of death is not known, but Claire Miles of the Buxton Museum said that a fracture in his left elbow had “healed poorly.” The Face Lab team scanned the surviving pieces of his skull with an Artec 3-D scanner and reassembled them digitally. The portions of the man’s face corresponding to the missing bones were produced from estimates based upon the surviving data, and appear blurred in the final image. To read in-depth about prehistoric Britain, go to "Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart." ||||| The face of a man who lived 4,500 years ago in England was reconstructed, with the blurry portions of the image indicating a lack of surviving facial bones; researchers had to estimate those portions. 
 
 The face of a man who died in England around 4,500 years ago has been reconstructed, revealing a "striking" image that should help humans alive today feel a personal connection, researchers said. 
 
 The man's remains were excavated in the 1930s and 1980s at Liff's Low bowl barrow, a burial mound located in Derbyshire, England. He was found buried with a type of pot called a beaker and a stone pendant that was likely worn on a necklace, the researchers said. 
 
 Anthropological analysis done in the 1980s found that the man was about 5 feet, 7 inches (1.7 meters) tall and was between the ages of 25 and 30 when he died, said Claire Miles, a collections assistant at the Buxton Museum. The anthropologists at the time found that the man had a fracture in his left elbow that had "healed poorly," Miles said, noting that the cause of the man's death is unknown. [In Images: Face of Ancient Long-headed Woman Reconstructed] 
 
 The museum commissioned Face Lab, a team of forensic specialists at Liverpool John Moores University, to reconstruct the man's face ahead of an exhibit featuring his remains scheduled to open in September. 
 
 The surviving skeletal remains of the man's face. Credit: Face Lab/Liverpool John Moores University 
 
 Using a mix of technology, including an Artec 3D scanner, the Face Lab forensic experts reconstruct the faces of people who died many centuries ago as well as those who died recently and are the subject of police investigations. 
 
 This man was buried in Derbyshire, England, with a stone pendant that would've been worn around his neck. Credit: Face Lab/Liverpool John Moores University 
 
 The team scanned each facial bone using the Artec 3D scanner, placing the digital counterparts of the surviving bones together on a computer screen like a "jigsaw puzzle," said Jessica Liu, a doctoral student at Liverpool John Moores University and member of the Face Lab team. 
 
 Some of the man's facial bones did not survive the passage of time, and the Face Lab team had to estimate the appearance section of the man's face using the data they had. The team blurred part of the reconstruction so that viewers would know which part of the man's face had been estimated. 
 
 In the end, the team was able to create a black-and-white reconstruction that Miles said is "quite striking" and will "allow visitors to make some sort of personal connection. 
 
 "This reconstruction really allows us to give a new interpretation," Miles said, adding that facial reconstructions "allow people to see them [ancient peoples] as people rather than a set of bones and hopefully make them interested in the way that they lived." 
 
 The Face Lab team is currently working on a facial reconstruction of a 2,700-year-old Egyptian female mummy called Ta-Kesh, which is now at the Maidstone Museum in Maidstone, the United Kingdom. 
 
 Original story on Live Science.
– We're getting a look at the face of a man who lived 4,500 years ago, thanks to a visual reconstruction by scientists, reports Live Science. Forensic specialists at Liverpool John Moores University, known as Face Lab, were commissioned by the Buxton Museum to digitally re-create the face of a man whose remains were excavated in England in the 1930s and 1980s. They 3D scanned every facial bone available and assembled them on a computer screen like a "jigsaw puzzle," one of the researchers says. Though the team had to blur parts of the man's face where bones were missing, they call the end result "quite striking" and hope it will help people today feel more connected to our ancestors, as one museum rep puts it, "as people rather than a set of bones and hopefully make them interested in the way that they lived." The man's remains were dug up at a burial mound in Derbyshire, and were stored at the Buxton Museum, reports Archaeology. He was buried with a beaker-like pot and a stone pendant likely worn on his neck. Scientists say that he was 5 feet 7 inches tall, had a fracture in his left elbow that "healed poorly," and died of unknown causes between the ages of 25 and 30. The Face Lab team is now working on reconstructing the face of a 2,700-year-old female Egyptian mummy called Ta-Kesh. (The lab reconstructed the face of Robert the Bruce last year.)