A lot of the job of history is to try to reach back and find the human in the past. Traditionally, history was all about the wars and the great men at the top. Endless lists of dates and battlegrounds and bridges and kings. This type of history, of course, has had it's day, and historiography has moved on to embrace many different approaches. Broad strokes can encapsulate many themes; you can view history through the lens of gender history, or political determinism, or just simply social history in general. You can even get post-modern with history.
Personally I'm always drawn to the big brush strokes of the development of the way people's ways of thinking change which, I suppose, is a form of social history.This allows for broad brush strokes but also can shrink down to the ordinary people who are just getting on with their lives. For me, history is about the collective, not about single individuals waving swords (or even words) around - no man is an island.
The thing is, history is also simply a scientific form of legend and storytelling. And, with every story, there are protagonists. The most traditional history glorified these people in the same way that we glorify Odysseus or Achilles or Robin Hood. Whether you agree with this sort of historical deification, even when we've moved on, these historical legends and heros have passed down our culture. So it was a joy to actually look into the faces of these people, which is what these facial reconstructions offer.
For example, check out the most famous Pharoah of all: Tutankhamun:
"King Tutankhamun, whose famous sarcophagus has traveled far more than the “boy king” did in his 19-year lifetime, had buckteeth, a receding chin, and a slim nose, according to 3D renderings of his mummy. His weird skull shape is just within range of normal and was probably genetic—his father, Akhenaten, had a similarly shaped head. Tut’s body also had a broken leg, indicating he may have died from falling off a horse or chariot."
This website also collects together the faces of Richard III, Copernicus, Bach, Shakespeare, Dante, 'Good King' Henri IV, Cleopatra's sister Arisone, 'Santa Claus' Saint Nicholas and Queen Nefertiti. Take a look by clicking the link below:
10 facial reconstructions of famous historical figures
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