"New look for Kennewick Man on TIME magazine" Topic

Latest computer reconstruction on the cover of TIME:

link

Certainly does have an "Asian" appearance. I still get a kick out of hearing about that group in California that claims Kennewick man was a long lost Viking!

What happened to Captain Picard?

link

I wonder what next week's reconstruction will look like.

CC

"I wonder what next week's reconstruction will look like."
True. But I don't think that the art or science of facial reconstructions is the problem (don't they use it in forensics?). I wish people would look at the remains objectively and scientifically instead of letting politics influence the matter.

I had no idea Kennewick Man was Lou Diamond Phillips.

First "Picard", now "Lou Diamond Phillips". LOL.

CC

I dunno…put a litle hair on "Picard" and they'll probably look very similar.

I thought this was a cool announcement. Now I wonder if I died in the woods in China, and they found my bones a few years later, if the Chinese forensics team do my reconstruction as Chinese.

John,

Then I think you will like this look for Picard (scroll about half way down the page):
link

:)

CC

CC that was just WRONG.

These are the ones I meant to post, but I just had to pick and post the other one instead!

picture
picture

Now my wife is mad at me for sharing the other one!

CC

OH, MY GOD!!!

Yup…I was right!

Cheers guys, these links made me smile!

These reconstructions always end up looking like what the what the "scienists" want them to look like. With every new model, Kennewick is looking more Indian in his features. It reminds me of the reconstructions the Chinese did of the red-haired Caucasian mummies they found in the Gobi desert. Somehow they finished with reconstructions with oriental features. I would just like to see the skulls reconstructed without all the politics and preconceived notions.

They need to do like a double blind reconstruction, though I doubt that the skull will go unrecognized now. Too bad.

They should always give 10 of those forensic reconstruction artists (or whatever they are really called) from all over the world resin casts of the skull without any idea of where it was obtained and under what circumstances. As long as it looked Sapien, they would not know if it was recent or very ancient.

But maybe that makes too much sense to our world's scientists!

CC

Thanks CC that put a smile on my face. LOL

Cacique-

I don't think it's the scientists who are doing these reconstructions. I'm in the business and know a number of physical anthropologists, and while they are all interested in this guy, they all agree that trying to reconstruct soft tissue is mostly speculative, and not scientific. They're more interested in what the bones can tell them.

I suspect the reconstructions are commissioned for the purpose we see here, to put on the cover of a magazine in order to sell more copies.

"I suspect the reconstructions are commissioned for the purpose we see here, to put on the cover of a magazine in order to sell more copies."

And maybe, just maybe, to influence one side of the other of the ownership controversy?

CC

Always check who's funding the research. At times that will influence the results.

Hi

Some years ago the Russians had a touring display "The Peoples of the Steppes". Curiously, in the reconstructions, the more politically important a group was out on the steppes, or the more famous, the more the reconstruction looked like Lenin!

There are two movements in archeology in the US right now. One wants to try to co-opt the indians by drawing them into the field and catering to "proving" the myths. The other group just insists on letting the data be what it is, but struggles with the politics.

I have not observed that the "lets co-opt them" crowd is getting better access, and certainly is doing suspect science.

R

A more recent somewhat related thread:

TMP link

CC