Indian-UK researchers recreate face with 2,500 years old skulls

In a minor sized university laboratory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, researchers are using a small drill to remove enamel from 2,500 years old tooth.

Researchers at the University of Madurai Kamaraj say that the teeth are one of the two human skulls, which they have used as a model to understand that the early residents of the region look like.

Men -related skulls were excavated from Kondagai, an ancient burial site from Kiladi about 4 km (2.5 mi) – an archaeological site that has become a political flashpoint in India.

Archaeologists of the Tamil Nadu state department say that there was a urban civilization that came back to 580BC in Keladi, a claim that adds a new dimension to the story of the Indian subcontinent.

The Indus Valley Civilization, which emerged 5,000 years ago in the northern and central parts of the present India, is the country’s first major civilization – and the narratives around urbanization have been limited to the answer so far.

But the state archaeologists say that the findings of Keladi first indicated that an ancient independent civilization was also present in southern India.

They say that the people of Keladi were literate, highly skilled and engaged in trade in the subcontinent and abroad. They lived in brick houses and buried their dead along with daily requirements such as food grains and utensils in Kondagai.

Archaeologists have so far excavated about 50 such urns from the site.

Researchers at Madurai Kamaraj University are now extracting DNA from human bones and other items found in these urns, to understand who were residents of Keladi and what their lifestyle was.

But a more deep discovery is going on.

“We want to understand our descendants and our ancestors’ migration routes,” Professor G Kumansan, who is the head of the Department of genetics in the university. He said, “This is a journey towards answering the big question of who we are and how we are present here and how we came here.”

The practice of reconstruction of the faces of the 2,500 -year -old skulls has shown that at least one part of this question may respond.

“The faces mainly have the characteristics of ancient ancestral South Indians – a population group that it is the first resident of the Indian subcontinent.”

Characteristics also reveal a mixture of Middle East Eurasian and Austro-Espector Anisters, signal on global migration and ancient population groups. But Pro -Cummers says that more research is required to establish the ancestors of the residents of Keladi.

The reconstruction of the skull face began to create a 3D scan of the skull with researchers at the University of Madurai Kamraj.

These digital scans were then sent to the UK to face the lab at Liverpool John Mores University. Face lab is an expert in creating digital cranial rebuilding using forensic, artistic and scientific principles and technologies.

Lab experts used computer software to add muscles, meat and skin to the scull scan, bringing out their facial features. These additions were made according to standard human physical ratio and measurement.

Then came a big challenge: adding color to images.

This raises questions such as men should be in brown shade, what color should their eyes be in their eyes and how should their hair look like?

Pro -Cummersion says that the standard practice of using colors that match the physical symptoms of people living in Tamil Nadu were followed, but digital paintings still held a lively discussion on social media.

He underlined the divisions in Indian society for a long time – around breed, culture and heritage.

The historical stories crashed with Aryan (usually used a word to describe people settling in the northern part of India) as the “original citizens” of the country collided with those who gave this title to the Dravies (a word that was mainly used to describe people living in the southern states of India).

India has always been plagued by a north -synchronization partition that stems from partially popular belief that Indian civilization – and everything related to it, such as language, culture and even religion took root in the north and shaped the rest of the country.

But Prof -Cummers says that the Kaladi skull’s face revelations a message that is more complex and inclusive.

“We can take everyone home, it is more diverse than what we feel, and our DNA has a proof of this lie,” they say.

This is not the first time that researchers in India have tried to rebuild the face with ancient skull.

In 2019, scientists rebuilt the face of two skulls found in a cemetery in Rakhigarhi, an important Indus Valley Civilization Sthal in India. But the drawings lack color and other physical symptoms.

Caroline Wilkinson says, “As humans, we have an attraction with face – our ability to recognize and interpret faces is part of our success as a social species.”

“These facial depiction also encourage audiences to understand the ancient remains as people rather than artifacts, and to establish a relationship through a personal story rather than a broad population history,” she says.

At Madurai Kamaraj University, trying to study Keladi, as well as the Indus Valley Civilization as well.

“Till now, we have learned that the people of Keladi were involved in agriculture, trade and cattle-rearing. They placed deer, goats and wild pigs and ate a lot of rice and millet,” called Prof. Kumrasen.

He said, “Interestingly, we have found evidence that he has also consumed the dates, even if the dates in Tamil Nadu in Tamil Nadu are not omnipresent,” they say.

But the most challenging task for his team extracts enough DNA from the human skeletons found in Kondagai to create a gene library. Because the skeletons are badly lowered, the DNA extracted from them is of low and poor quality. But Prof. -Kumarson hopes that some good will come out of these efforts.

“Ancient DNA libraries are like the portal of the past; they can reveal attractive insight about life because it was and life as we know it should be,” they say.

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