1,500-year-old girl is reconstructed - INSIDE JoongAng Daily

1,500-year-old girl is reconstructed - INSIDE JoongAng Daily:

"From left:

Computer

graphics show the process

of recreating an image

of the ancient girl

based on her remains. Right:

The fully recreated silicon

mode

l of the girl.

By Cho Mun-gyu
She was probably 16 years old and had a wide,

flat Asian face, a long neck and a slim figure.

The girl died 1,500 years ago. But now she’s reborn -

well, partially, at least.

At the National Palace Museum of Korea

yesterday officials from the Gaya

National Research Institute of Cultural

Heritage in Korea

unveiled the restored model of

the girl from the

Gaya confederacy era (42-562).

The restoration is the result of two years of

interdisciplinary work that brought together experts in

archaeology, forensic medicine, anatomy,

genetics, chemistry and other fields -

a notable step forward in Korean archaeology.
In December 2007, archaeologists discovered

the complete remains of the girl

and partial remains

of threeothers in a tomb in

Changnyeong County,

South Gyeongsang.

By the time of the discovery,

there had already been a

grave robbery.

Archaeologists concluded that

the four were

attendants of the tomb’s owner

because they were positioned

horizontally.

The remains of the owner,

however, were missing.

“We rarely find bones

in such a good condition

from the era because soil in

Korea is really rich,”

said Lee Seong-jun,

a researcher at the institute.

“There have been restorations,

but most of them were based on

the imagination. This case, however,

is strictly based on medical science,

somatology and statistics.”
Lee added that the discovery was the

first time forensic experts -

in this case from

the

National Institute of Scientific

Investigation -

recovered the remains of an

ancient tomb."