It is all too easy to stare into the empty depths of the eye sockets of a skull and forget that what you are looking at was once a human being with as rich an inner life as yours. These days, however, in museums, churches, and bizarrely unexpected places, many skulls are being found and transformed by researchers.

By reconstructing the faces of people from the past, we can bring them back to life, at least in terms of how we perceive them. Here are ten of the most breathtaking facial reconstructions, each of them providing a fascinating glimpse into history.

10 Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa

The Etruscans were the masters of Italy for centuries before the Romans conquered them. Today, little remains of their world, as the Romans were so thorough in absorbing them. Some of the most startling discoveries archaeologists have made are in the tombs the Etruscans left behind. Sarcophagi of the Etruscans show the dead as they looked in life. The dead person is depicted reclining on a bed, often with a pillow under one arm for comfort.

In the British Museum, the sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa can be found. Her image shows a plump but fresh-faced lady in the peak of health. Examining the less lively remains inside the coffin gave experts the chance to compare the image with the reality. They found Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa to be a woman of around 50 when she died.^[1] By modeling how her flesh would have been attached to her skull, they found that the model on top of the sarcophagus was clearly a portrait of the dead woman—even if a somewhat flattering one.

9 Cheddar Man

Cheddar Man is the oldest near-complete Homo sapiens skeleton found in Britain.^[2] Dating to around 10,000 years ago, he has long been a figure of interest for historians. Where had he come from, and what was his life like? It was determined that he suffered from a bone infection and probably died a violent death, but not all that much was known about him.

In 2018, DNA studies on the remains allowed for an accurate reconstruction of Cheddar Man for the first time. It was discovered that Cheddar Man had blue eyes, dark, curly hair, and dark skin. It appears that the pale skin that can often be used to identify British people in the summer was a much more recent development than originally thought. Studies suggest that Cheddar Man was part of the population known as Western European Hunter-Gatherers, who formed around ten percent of the ancestry of modern Britons.

8 Richard III

Kings do not usually have to wait for a parking space. Richard III of England spent centuries under a parking lot, however. In 2012, more than 500 years after his death in battle, the king’s remains were dug up. Archaeologists had good reason to suspect he was buried there, as it was known to be the site of the church where he was thought to have been laid to rest. They immediately suspected they had found their monarch by examining the bones and noting the wounds which caused his death and the scoliosis which twisted his spine. Confirmation came through DNA comparisons with surviving relatives.

Using the rediscovered skull, they were able to give us the first accurate portrait of the maligned Richard.^[3] Paintings done during his reign were later altered, and those done afterward showed the king as a wicked and deformed character. We now know that Richard simply had a somewhat prominent nose and chin.

7 Griffin Warrior

The Griffin Warrior Tomb is the name given to an archaeological site at Pylos in Greece. Discovered in 2015, it dates from around 1450 BC and contained rich offerings, as well as a skeleton. One of the finds, a tiny engraved gem showing two men in combat, is considered one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek art. The Griffin Warrior of the tomb got his name from an ivory plaque showing a griffin.

The excavation showed that the dead person was a man in his thirties and likely to have been both rich and important. The quality of the goods alone testified to his wealth, but his height and strength suggested he had enjoyed a good diet in life. Combs found in the grave suggest he wore his hair long. By examining the skull and the engraved stone, a facial reconstruction was made that captured both the warrior’s facial structure and how he wore his hair and shaved.^[4]

6 Dante

It should not perhaps surprise us that Dante, the poet of the Christian afterlife, has had a bit of a complicated time after his own death. A renowned poet in his own life, he was exiled from his beloved Florence. When he died, he was buried in Ravenna. Recognizing that they had cast out one of their geniuses, Florence wanted his body back, but the monks in charge of his grave hid his bones. Florence has had to suffer without his corpse since then.

A man as famous as Dante always has paintings made of him, but most of them are quite ugly. His cheeks hang down, and his nose points at his chin. In 2007, researchers used measurements of Dante’s skull to see if he really deserved this artistic treatment.^[5] The reconstruction suggests that Dante was no worse-looking than many people, and his distinctive features in many paintings were the product of poetic license rather than true to the poet himself.

5 Henri IV Of France

Henri IV of France was beloved in his time. Well, as beloved as a king who ended up getting assassinated can be. He was tolerant of other religious faiths and liked a good time. Henri was known as a philanderer, something which only endeared him further to his subjects. Even the fact that his feet and armpits stank of garlic did not seem to have harmed his popularity. Long after his death, however, during the French Revolution, his corpse was disinterred and desecrated.^[6] Somehow, his head became disconnected and ended up in the attic of a tax collector.

The facial reconstruction performed on the skull revealed a face very similar to those shown in official portraits. Not all of the king’s descendants accept that the skull really is that of Henri, and for now, it sits in a bank vault in Paris.

4 Simon Of Sudbury

It’s not only kings who can misplace their heads. Simon of Sudbury is unfortunate in that he was still alive when his was removed—with eight brutal blows from an ax. Simon, archbishop of Canterbury, had made the unfortunate choice to become lord chancellor of England in 1380, when the country was at war and broke. The jewels of the young King Richard II were pawned, but to continue the war with France required the vast sum of £160,000. It was decided that a poll tax would be levied. This proved a mistake, as it provoked the Peasants’ Revolt, which led to Simon being beheaded.^[7]

His head was speared onto a pike and paraded around the city before being recovered. Today, it rests in a church, but it has been used to reconstruct the unfortunate archbishop’s appearance. Looking a little like Shrek, the chancellor would have been a very distinctive person in life. Hiding from his enemies was probably not an option.

3 The Lady Of Cao

In 2006, a mummy was discovered in Peru. Though well-preserved, the Lady of Cao died roughly 1,500 years ago. Those who buried her had not set out to mummify the young lady; the conditions just happened to be right to dry her body before it rotted. Her corpse remained in such a good condition that her tattoos of snakes, spiders, and crabs could still be seen. Because of the high-status items found with her and the location of her burial, the Lady of Cao made her discoverers reconsider what they thought they knew about Moche society. Ladies, it seems, could be leaders.

By laser-scanning the face and skull, researchers were able to recreate her appearance at the time of her death.^[8] Only in her twenties, there is some evidence that the Lady of Cao died shortly after childbirth. By comparing the reconstruction of her face to those of women currently living in the area, it was found that face and skull shapes have changed relatively little in the intervening centuries.

2 Saint Nicholas

Santa Claus is a real person. Or at least he is based on a real person. Saint Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop who lived in modern-day Turkey. He gained his reputation as a gift-giver because of his habit of covertly leaving small presents for the needy. In one case, he is said to have thrown small bags of gold through a window, an act which saved three girls from being forced into prostitution. According to legend, the bags landed in stockings and shoes left by a fireplace. While many children would dearly love to see Saint Nicholas on Christmas Eve, those who actually want to see his face would have to travel to Bari in Italy, where his remains are held.

In 2014, these remains were used to recreate the saint’s face.^[9] Saint Nicholas had at some point suffered a badly broken nose—so bad that it cracked the bones between his eyes. This failed to heal straight and would have given the saint’s nose a dramatic twist. This may have been the result of torture the saint is said to have endured during a persecution of Christians.

1 Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun has one of the most recognizable faces in all of history. The golden mask of his sarcophagus is instantly familiar and has pervaded our culture ever since its discovery. Yet for all the splendor of his tomb, Tutankhamun was a relatively minor pharaoh. The mask shows Tutankhamun as the ideal of a perfect young king. The truth was rather more disturbing.

Medical studies of the pharaoh’s corpse have shown that he had a club foot, malaria, and suffered because of the incestuous marriage of his parents. It is likely that when Tutankhamun walked, he required a cane to support him. Many canes were found in his tomb.

In contrast to the gilded youth of his sculptures and mask, Tutankhamun in life looked rather ungainly.^[10] He suffered from a pronounced overbite and a slightly malformed skull. Perhaps the mask made for him showed the face he wanted to be known with in eternity.

DNA is the genetic code unique to every human, but another more obvious sign of individuality exists—your face. Love it or not, everything from the width of your nose to the size of your ears are exclusive to you.

When an unidentified body is found, a skull can unlock the secrets of that person’s appearance, even after decomposition and the passage of time. Police have been using composite sketches to identify suspects and victims for around 100 years, but forensic sculptors take the recreation of faces to another level.

Forensic sculptors will study the skull and measure the tissue depth to craft a replica of the subject’s face. The portrait, usually made of clay, will also include quirks such as broken bones and dentistry. Hair and eye color are largely guesswork, but the essence of a face can be reproduced with startling results.

A forensic reconstruction is an art form that gives anonymous bodies their names back and lets us see the faces of ancient people and long-lost murder victims.

Related: Top 10 Infamous Murder Cases Solved Through Pioneering Forensics

10 Chicago Jane Doe

A large cardboard box sat unnoticed in a Chicago alley until curious trash hunters looked inside and found human remains. The decomposed female body was discovered in January 2007 but could not be identified, so police named her “Chicago Jane Doe.”

Leading forensic artist Karen Taylor was tasked with making a facial reconstruction from the skull. The victim’s hair and ponytail elastic were still visible, and she also had a distinctive chipped front tooth plus orthodontic bands leftover from recent treatment.

A photo of the sculpture—along with dental X-rays—was featured in the Illinois Dental News, and a receptionist remembered the victim from visits to their office. The patient’s name was Marlaina “Niki” Reed, a 17-year-old who had disappeared from foster care, and DNA confirmed her identity.^[1]

9 Cheddar Man

Deep inside a limestone cave in Cheddar Gorge, England, the body of a man lay undiscovered for nearly 10,000 years. The skeleton was found during excavations in 1903 and put on display at London’s Natural History Museum as an example of a Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) man. Cool temperatures inside the cave had preserved his precious DNA, and in 2018, a team from the museum took samples from the petrous (inner ear bone) of Cheddar Man to learn more about his origins.

His DNA revealed a 76% chance that he had light blue eyes and “dark to black” skin pigmentation, more commonly found in people from sub-Saharan Africa, not ancient Britain. Forensic artists measured and scanned the skull to construct a model of his face using this new information.

Researchers had previously believed that early humans slowly developed lighter skin after migrating to Europe around 45,000 years ago. The arrival of farmers from the Middle East, combined with pale skin’s ability to absorb UV light in colder climates, brought about this change. Scientists always thought that light-colored eyes and blond hair evolved much later.

The discovery of Cheddar Man with his blue eyes and dark skin turned this theory on its head.^[2]

8 Twinsburg John Doe

Workers dumping trash behind an abandoned factory in Twinsburg, Ohio, discovered a skull and other body parts stuffed into a garbage bag. The victim had been stabbed, beaten, dismembered, then set alight in a determined effort to destroy his identity. An autopsy revealed he was an African American male aged between 20 and 35 years. Unfortunately, no one remembered the man, and his body, found in 1982, was named “Twinsburg John Doe.”

In 2016, police appointed forensic artists to construct a clay sculpture of John Doe’s face using his skull and teeth, although the mandible (lower jaw) was missing. Images of his face were circulated with no results.

In 2018, a match was found by the DNA Doe Project—a voluntary group that identifies human remains through genealogy databases. John Doe’s name was Frank Little Jr, a former soldier who had found fame as a guitarist and songwriter for the R&B group, The O’Jays. Little left the group in the late 1960s and lost touch with his family around the mid-1970s.

What happened to him next remains unknown.^[3]

7 Jane from Jamestown

The Jamestown colony in Virginia was comprised of English settlers who arrived in 1607. The community faced drought, starvation, and disease, culminating in the bleak winter of 1609, known as the “Starving Time.”

Historical documents state that extreme hunger drove the colony to eat horses, dogs, and even their own leather boots. Now evidence suggests that cannibalism saved the group from extinction.

In 2012, archaeologists at James Fort, Williamsburg, found pieces of a human skull next to animal bones in a disused cellar at the camp. A CT scanner was used to reassemble the female skull. From this, a 3D facial reconstruction was created and named “Jane” by anthropologists from the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.

Jane was 14 years old, from Southern England, and had a high protein diet which suggests that she was from an affluent family. Clumsy puncture marks to the back of her head, which smashed the skull in half, indicate a desperate attempt to extract her brain, tongue, and cheeks—all unmistakable signs of cannibalism.

The Jamestown teenager was not thought to have been murdered, but she is unlikely to be the only corpse cannibalized by the starving people of Jamestown.^[4]

6 Pleasant Prairie John Doe

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Walking near railroad tracks in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, a photographer stumbled across a badly decomposed body. An autopsy found that the corpse was male, aged between 40 and 60, with long black hair and missing front teeth. A tattoo on the man’s forearm featuring leaves and a bear claw raised hopes that he would be identified, but no one recognized him.

Further DNA testing revealed links to the Catawba Nation of South Carolina and family members in Mexico.

After 23 years, John Doe’s skull was submitted for a full facial reconstruction. A clay model of the mystery man’s face was unveiled at a press conference in 2016, but his identity is still unknown.^[5]

5 Spitalfields Roman Lady

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

London is a city steeped in history, and in the 1990s, major construction works unearthed an ancient Roman cemetery hidden under the streets of Spitalfields Market. One coffin stood out from the rest—made from valuable lead and adorned with seashells, it held the remains of a Roman A-lister who had died around AD 350.

The perfectly preserved female skeleton was dressed in robes made from Chinese silk stitched with pure gold thread. Inside her coffin were jars of perfumed oil and a pillow of bay leaves to ease her journey to the afterlife.

Further tests revealed she was born in Italy; it is believed that she came to Roman-occupied London as the wife of a centurion.

In 2000, a facial reconstruction of the Spitalfields Lady was made from her preserved skull and is on display at the Museum of London.^[6]

4 Boulder Jane Doe

Silvia Pettem was visiting Boulder’s Columbia Cemetery in 1996 and was intrigued by a simple grave that read “Jane Doe, Age About 20.” Pettem learned that the headstone had been paid for by the people of Boulder after a woman’s battered remains were found near a creek in 1954, her identity unknown.

Pettem went back over old case files and autopsy reports in a bid to learn more and persuaded the police to re-open the case. Jane Does’s body was exhumed in 2004, and a forensic sculptor created a 3D model of her face after studying the skull.

The great-niece of a woman who had disappeared from Phoenix in 1954 was also searching the internet—and found Pettem’s website. She believed Boulder Jane Doe could be her long-lost relative, Dorothy Gay Howard. The woman had left home at 18 and was never seen again. In October 2009, DNA tests confirmed it was Dorothy’s body.

Police believe Dorothy fell victim to serial killer Howard Glatman who had hinted at a Colorado murder. Glatman was executed in 1959.^[7]

3 Viking Warrior Woman

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

A Viking’s grave in Norway was filled with a deadly cache of weapons in honor of a hero. Experts believed that only Viking men went into battle, but the skeleton found in this warrior’s grave was female.

In 2019, a team from the University of Dundee studied the 1000-year-old skeleton and discovered a deep crack in her skull, severe enough to damage the bone. The woman had survived a brutal sword attack, making her the first female Viking with battle scars equal to her male counterparts.

Scientists layered skin on top of muscle to produce a detailed likeness of the 18-or-19-year-old’s face. The model—in all its gory detail with a swollen eye and bloody head wound—can be seen at Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History.^[8]

2 Body 115

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Thirty-one people were killed at Kings Cross station, London, in November 1987 when a discarded cigarette landed on garbage piled under a wooden escalator, and fire engulfed the building.

One victim remained unidentified. Named “Body 115” after his mortuary tag number, the man was 157.5 centimeters (5 feet 2 inches) tall and had recently undergone brain surgery. Hundreds of calls came in from the families of missing men, but none matched Body 115.

Forensic artists took what remained of his skull and badly burned features to reconstruct his face.

Alexander Fallon’s family always wondered if he had perished in the fire. Fallon had left Scotland after his wife’s death and drifted toward London, where he spent years living on the streets. His occasional letters home all stopped in 1987. Forensic experts compared skull measurements and confirmed that Body 115 was 72-year-old Fallon.

Fallon had been buried in a shared grave with Ralph Humberstone, another recently identified victim. Fallon’s name has now been added to a memorial plaque, replacing the words “Unknown Man.” ^[9]

1 Santa Claus

How do you picture Santa Claus? Twinkly blue eyes and soft rosy cheeks? Wrong. The real St. Nicholas had deep brown eyes and an olive complexion with a heavy jawline and a broken nose.

The journey to uncover St. Nicholas’s face started in the 1950s when his remains were exhumed from a crypt in Italy. Anthropologists took X-rays and detailed measurements of his skull. However, it wasn’t until 2004 that computer software existed to enable scientists to build a virtual clay model of his face. A team from Manchester University in the UK created the 3D image using just these recorded measurements. His eye color and skin tone were matched with people living in the same area of Asia Minor, now Turkey.

Studies of religious art from the 4th century—when St. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra—found that he probably had the same white hair and beard as our modern-day Santa.

Over the years, this Greek bishop has somehow morphed into the red-suited man from the North Pole we all know and love. His new name “Santa Claus” comes from the Dutch feast day celebration of St. Nicholas—Sinterklaas.^[10]