Evidence for human evolution can provide a realistic approach to it person of a man who lived before 30,000 – 35,000 years in today’s Egypt.

In 1980, archaeologists discovered human skeletal remains at Nazlet Khater 2, an archaeological site in Egypt’s Nile Valley. Anthropological analysis revealed that the man was between 17 and 29 years old when he died, about 160cm tall and of African descent. The skeleton is the oldest example of Homo sapiens remains found in Egypt and one of the oldest in the world, according to a study published on March 22.

However, little else was known about him except that he was buried with a stone axe.

Now, more than 40 years later, a team of Brazilian researchers has created an approximation of the man’s face using dozens of digital images they collected while examining his skeletal remains, which are part of the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

“The skeleton has preserved most of the bones, although there have been some losses, including the absence of ribs, arms, the middle-lower part of the right tibia and the lower part of the left tibia, as well as the feet,” he told Live Science via email. first author Moacir Elias Santos, an archaeologist at the Ciro Flamarion Cardoso Archaeological Museum in Brazil. “But the main structure for approaching the face, the skull, was well preserved.”

One feature of the skull that the researchers singled out was the jaw and how it differed from more modern mandibles. A section of the skull was also missing, but the team copied and mirrored it using the opposite side of the skull and used data points from CT scans from live virtual donors.

“The skull, in general, has a modern structure, but part of it has archaic elements, such as the jaw, which is much more robust than that of modern humans,” her co-researcher told Live Science in an email. study by Cicero Moraes, a Brazilian specialist in graphics. “When I observed the skull for the first time, I was impressed by this structure and at the same time I was curious to know what it would look like after approaching the face.”

By digitally stitching together the images using a process known as photogrammetry, the researchers created two virtual 3D models of the human. The first was a black and white image of him with his eyes closed in a neutral state and the second was a more artistic approach with a young man with tousled dark hair and a groomed beard.

“In general, people think that the face approach works like in Hollywood movies, where the end result is 100% compatible with the face in life,” said Moraes. “Actually, it’s not exactly like that. What we do is approximate what the face could be, with the available statistical data, and the resulting work is a very simple structure. However, it is always important to humanize the person’s face when working with historical characters, as by complementing the structure with hair and colors, the identification with the audience will be greater, causing interest and – who knows – a desire to study more about the specific topic or archaeology [και] history as a whole,” he added.

The researchers hope that providing a glimpse of this ancient man could help archaeologists better understand how humans evolved over time.

“The fact that this individual is over 30,000 years old makes it important to understanding human evolution,” Santos said.