Scientists have reconstructed the face of a Neanderthal woman who lived 75 000 years ago. Paleoartist experts created a 3D model.
This is stated in the BBC Studios documentary entitled "Secrets of the Neanderthals".
The skull of the woman from which the model was built was found in the Shanidar Caves in Iraqi Kurdistan. This is a cult site where archaeologists found the remains of at least ten Neanderthals in the 1950s.
In 2015, a group of British scientists came across a new Shanidar Z skeleton, which consisted of most of the upper half of the human body, including the spine, shoulders and arms. However, the skull was crushed to a thickness of two centimeters.
BBC Studios / Jamie Simonds
The skull fragments were transported to Great Britain, and then the researchers began the painstaking process of stabilizing them and reassembling them. Archaeologists and restorers worked on the puzzle for more than a year.
The reconstructed skull was scanned and handed over to Dutch artists Adri and Alphonse Kennis for 3D printing.
Scientists assume that the woman whose skeleton was found died around the age of 45, as evidenced by her teeth, which were worn almost to the root.
Neanderthals are a late Pleistocene subspecies of man that inhabited Europe and Western Asia in 230 000-27 000 BC. There is a belief that Neanderthals are not the evolutionary predecessors of modern humans.