Swedish sculptor and archaeologist Oscar Nilsson recently launched an intriguing and ambitious project which gives us a unique glimpse of how humans looked like hundreds and thousands of years ago. Nilsson creates hand-made face sculptures of people who’ve lived thousands of years ago, by using their excavated bones as reference.
Nilsson’s works are highly realistic and contain an impressive amount of details, including the face structure, eye color, and even facial hair. He is able to recreate the face with high accuracy thanks to several scientific methods, including recreating of the bone structure and measurements of the tissue depth of the face.
“By using this forensic technique, it makes it possible to see what an individual looked like, even though there are thousands of years between us,” Nilsson explained in an interview with My Modern Met. “It’s a way to make history more intimate, emotional, and personal, and a way to feel closer to the individuals.”
Nilsson’s list of face recreations includes a young woman who has lived around 5,500 years ago, a Neanderthal woman who lived 50,000 years ago, and Swedish Viking from XI century. Take a look at these and more sculptures below.
