We looked like a human face from Stonehenge. Very ... - Gazeta Wyborcza

attraction of the center is the reconstructed figure of a man, who was born 500 years before this, while at the place of worship stood first stone monolith.

Stonehenge is one of the most famous megalithic monuments, dating from the Neolithic period and the Bronze . Megalith is located at a distance of 13 km from the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire in southern England. Most likely, he was associated with the cult of the moon and the sun.

Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a large group of standing stones. The place where the established building, gained cultural significance before 2950 BC This is evidenced by the outdoors megalith tombs date back to around 3100 even BC and piled out of the ground ring also dated to this period.

Facility since 1986 is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She looks after him Angielski Heritage – Agenda of the British government engaged in building monuments in England.

Every discovery relating to this place arouses a sensation. This time we were able to show tourists something very tangible.

Very masculine type

Model “man with the Stonehenge “is based on the well-preserved skeleton of a man, discovered already in the 60s For the nineteenth century scientists prehistoric people was a rare example of the anatomy of people living in the Neolithic era, because this man lived in the region of about 5.5 thousand Stonehenge. years ago.

Now the skeleton took a forensics specialists. Reconstructed the most probable appearance of a man. Their work also helped determine how he lived, where he was born and what he ate. It’s also possible that the exact analysis of its skeleton shed new light on the beginnings of Stonehenge itself.

prehistoric man’s face was reconstructed by Swedish sculptor Oscar Nilsson on the basis of information derived from the analysis of bones and teeth. Also, the length of the bones of a man, the weight of the skeleton and its age – estimated to be 25-40 years old – were used to evaluate the thickness of the skin on the face and appearance of muscles.

Nilsson used a copy of the skull made by Andrew Wilson of the University of Bradford ( United Kingdom). It was the Swede base to create a clay reconstruction of the muscles.

The man was extremely muscular, which is not surprising, given the Neolithic way of life. He was also very masculine – he had clearly scratched his chin and jaw bones. – I had to earn some extra money his beard. At that time not known yet razor – explains Nilsson.

infection killed him?

How did he die man with Stonehenge? The biologist specializing in human skeletons – Simon Mays of the University of Southampton (United Kingdom) – was not, unfortunately, able to deduce on the basis of the cause of death remains a man. It is believed, however, that he died because of an infection that killed him too fast to leave a trace of the disease in the bones.

Mays also discovered two wounds on his leg – it was a deep incision reaching the bone.

In turn, the analysis of teeth made by Alistair Pike (also of the University of Southampton) brought a lot of interesting information. Pike isolated enamel of the teeth of man. Then, using spektografii studied mass ratio of the two forms of strontium isotopes in various stages of development of his teeth. It revealed that water (from which the surrounding area) drinking man with Stonehenge, and adjust the exact isotopic composition of the geology of the area.

Human teeth need about four years to be formed, so you can trace the movement of the subject during this period. Prehistoric man traveled a lot as a child. He was born somewhere in Wales and moved to the vicinity of Stonehenge, when he was about three years. – If you actually came from Wales, but we can have a relationship with the transport from there to the oldest building monoliths of Stonehenge. These two communities have been associated with each other for centuries – says Pike.

teeth were a little worn out man for his age, which suggests that his diet was based on soft food.

carnivorous and important

Researchers also compared the isotopes of another element – carbon. They vary depending on the plant that the person ate. Also managed to figure out (based on nitrogen isotope studies), whether he eat meat.

Scientists have determined that this individual was extremely carnivorous. He ate more meat than modern humans. Probably in the form of braised stew. This and unique human burial with Stonehenge (found him in the tomb) suggests that he was an important figure for his community.

Unfortunately for researchers of his teeth turned out to be a very … clean.

– If we were able to analyze the calculus, we could identify species that ate, the sequences of proteins trapped in stone. In turn, embedded in the plaque bacteria could tell us something about the state of his digestive system – says Pike.

The team did not have enough time to be able to perform a thorough analysis of the DNA, but it seems hopeless case because of strong modern DNA contamination of the material. Nevertheless, scientists believe that Stonehenge was a man with brown eyes and chestnut hair with a tinge, probably reflecting its Celtic roots.

If this model hunk of Stonehenge is true, then the appearance of the people has changed little from 5 thousand. years. – Someone may sit tomorrow in front of you on the subway – summed Nilsson.