Making Faces: Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence

Such an interesting book! I do forensic archaeology at university so I bought this book for my dissertation and it was so fascinating! Lots of information and case studies, a very good book would defo recommend!

Well written (if a little technical at times)Great anecdotes from reconstructions the authors have carried out.It could do with the pictures being better or more clearly cross referenced to the text they relate to, but apart from it was an interesting read.

wonderful over view of the this subject by Dr. Prag, worth getting for anyone wanting get a gateway into the subject and some interesting case studies.

Although the method of creating actual faces from skeletal remains is now somewhat out of date, due to increases in computer technology, I still found the book really interesting.

Excellent. Written engagingly by an expert, and innovator.

An interesting read.

John Prag and his team have perfected the technique of reconstructing human faces from skulls found at historical and (pre-historical) digs. The book shows how excavated (and often incomplete) skulls and pieces together on a clay base. The thickness of the flesh on our skulls is well understood, so a clay "musculature" is added before the "skin" layer which can be coloured and given hair. The finished reconstructions are remarkably life like. The archaeological evidence can even predict how people died (injuries) how old they were (dental analysis) and even how much pain they were in - if they had arthritis. The reconstruction of Philip of Macedonia (Alexander the Great's father) graphically shows a healed wound over his right eye caused by an arrow was fired from a rampart which took out his eye. Most people of the period wouldn't have survived such a wound. He clearly did - as his face adorns to book's cover. The spacing of facial features can even be used to predict family relationships between different bodies in the same burial mound, since we all tend to look like our parents and siblings. This established face-shape methodology has been confirmed recently by DNA analysis. This is a great read drawing, as it does, on so many disciplines - archaeology, anatomy, forensics, dentistry and even make-up artistry!