Scientists and artists collaborated to reconstruct the face of a 10,500-year-old woman

Scientists and artists collaborated to reconstruct the face of a 10,500-year-old woman

Scientists and artists collaborated to reconstruct the face of a 10,500-year-old woman whose remains were found in the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Using well-preserved DNA taken from the woman’s skull, scientists determined she had dark hair and blue eyes.

The woman belonged to the same hunter-gatherer population as the “Cheddar Man,” whose remains were found in England in 1903. But her DNA revealed she had slightly lighter-colored skin compared to Cheddar Man—who had dark skin and blue eyes—and other hunter-gatherers that lived in Western Europe during the Mesolithic period, or the Middle Stone Age. This discovery suggests Mesolithic hunter-gatherers had varying skin tones, which may have been influenced by factors like their diet, migration patterns and their local climate. From her remains, researchers were also able to deduce that the woman had strong brow ridges and a high nasal bridge, and that she was between 35 and 60 years old when she died.

The woman’s remains were found in 1988 during archaeological explorations of the Margaux cave, which is located near the present-day city of Dinant in Belgium, near the border with France.

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