What some historical figures that we only saw in books were like in real life

In 1887, Hermann Schaaffhausen, a German anthropologist, was the first to attempt to reconstruct a person’s appearance from the Paleolithic period through a skull fossil. Nowadays, thanks to the advancement of technology, the method of facial reconstruction has advanced enough that we can compare the real appearance of historical figures with ancient portraits and sculptures, and also see what our most ancient ancestors looked like.

O awesome.club prepared a list of what historical figures would look like in real life through the feature of facial recreation from portraits and the skull. The result is surprising, check it out!

In 2018, British artist Matt Collichow presented his project “The Mask of Youth”, a recreation of the face of Queen Elizabeth I. When she took the throne, she was just 25 years old. The Queen’s reign is called “The Golden Age” of England.

Spanish artist Salva Ruano created the project “Caesars of Rome”, in which he reconstructed the faces of Roman emperors Nero, Augustus and Caligula. To convey the appearance of Roman emperors as accurately as possible, the artist studied coins with images of them and all the sources that were available.

Nero became emperor at age 16. At the beginning of his reign he showed himself to be a good and prudent administrator, but in the second half he showed his tyrannical nature.

Augustus was Caesar’s great-nephew and was the founder of the Roman Empire. He significantly expanded the state’s borders and became the first Roman Emperor in the modern sense of the word.

The emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, nicknamed Caligula, was a cruel and tyrannical ruler, although early in his reign he showed himself to be a moderate and pious man. He ruled the Roman Empire for only 4 years and was assassinated in a praetorian guard coup.

Christians call Saint Nicholas the Worker of Miracles. In the East he is considered the patron saint of travelers, orphans and prisoners, and in the West he is known to all as Santa Claus.

In 2014, British scientists reconstructed the skull of Saint Nicholas. Its height was around 1.68 m, and its head was round and with a large jaw.

In 1996, the remains of a woman, who lived 7,500 years ago during the Neolithic period, were found on the Gibraltar peninsula. She was named Chalpeia — the name of the rock where the woman was found. Her skull was deformed, but recently, with the help of facial reconstruction technologies, scientists were able to restore it and reconstruct Calpeia’s appearance in just six months. They found out that she was brunette, dark-eyed, and that she died between the ages of 30-40.

In 1987, archaeologist Walter Alva discovered a tomb in northern Peru known as the Tomb of the Lord of Sipán. A high-ranking ruler of the Moche Civilization who was buried along with 8 people. In 2016, anthropologists reconstructed his appearance using DNA and technology and found that he suffered from arthritis and died between the ages of 45 and 55.

In 2017, University of Versailles anthropologist Philippe Charlier and forensic facial reconstruction expert Philippe Froesch reconstructed Mary Magdalene’s appearance. To recreate her appearance, they took over 500 photographs of the skull from different angles and created a three-dimensional computer model. However, according to scientists, they are not entirely sure that the skull really was Mary Magdalene.

Meritamon was the queen of Ancient Egypt and the daughter of Pharaoh Ramesses II. Her tomb was discovered in the early 19th century by Karl Richard Lepsius, a German archaeologist. In 2016, Australian scientists at the University of Melbourne reconstructed the queen’s skull. To do this, they used a 3D printer and a CT scanner. It took 140 hours to print all the skull fragments.

Robert I, or Robert the Bruce as he was also known, was one of the greatest Scottish monarchs and the founder of the Bruce dynasty. Several facial reconstructions of Robert I were made. Scientists hypothesized that he suffered from leprosy, but refused to draw a final conclusion due to lack of data, so they recreated the monarch’s appearance in two versions: with traces of the disease in his face and without them.

William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest playwrights in the world. After his death, there were many doubts about the authorship of his works. One question was that the playwright’s vocabulary ranged from 17,500 to 29,000 words, but there was no evidence of his education.

In 1849, a death mask of Shakespeare was found in Germany. Based on it, a group of British anthropologists from the University of Dundee recreated the face of the famous English playwright.

If you had the opportunity to talk to any historical figure, who would it be? Tell us in the comments section.