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Thursday, 1 April 2010

A University of Western Australia researcher's work with a skull discovered during a 1939 archaeological dig has revealed the face of a New Zealand woman who lived in the South Island's Marlborough region more than 600 years ago.

The work of facial anthropologist Dr Susan Hayes has helped the descendants of the woman, affectionately known by local iwi Rangitane as "Aunty" , to unlock a special connection to their past and repatriate her remains.

Using digital technology Dr Hayes was able to determine facial structure from Computed Tomography (CT) scans of the skull recovered from a significant burial site on the Wairau Bar.

Following a thorough examination of the skull and recording its unique dimensions, Dr Hayes was able to calculate the likely appearance of the eyes, nose, mouth and overall face shape before building up the soft tissues, starting with the main muscles that define the overall shape of the face and ultimately applying the surface appearance.

"The level of accuracy is within the parameters of what she would have looked like - except for what we cannot determine from the skull, such as hair, or the lines on the face, or character," said Dr Hayes.

Initially trained by Ronn Taylor - the forensic sculptor for the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, while at UWA Dr Hayes' has undertaken intensive training in both 3D and 2D facial reconstruction working directly with Dr Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Dundee.

Dr Hayes' method of undertaking a facial reconstruction has since been refined and developed to now be fully digital.

Dr Hayes' facial reconstructions work includes six pre-adults from the Greig Collection at the Royal College of Surgeons in Scotland, which are on display in their Edinburgh Pathology Museum.

She has also reconstructed the faces of two men and two women from the Teouma Lapita excavation site in Vanuatu, where she worked with archaeologists and biological anthropologists from ANU, the University of Paris and the University of Otago. The Lapita people are thought to be the first to populate the islands of the Pacific 3,000 years ago, and Dr Hayes's approximations are of the largest number of individuals ever found of these elusive people.

Dr Hayes was asked to be involved in the repatriation of the remains for the iwi Rangitane by Dr Hallie Buckley at the University of Otago. "It has been a privilege," she said.

Media references

Dr Susan Hayes (UWA Research Associate)   (+61 8) 6488 8645 / (+61 4) 08 784 512
Aleta Johnston (UWA Public Affairs)   (+61 8) 6488 7977 / (+61 4) 31 514 677

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