BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 A blacksmith, a stable boy, a soldier, a slave: The faces and stories of these and other residents of an ancient Roman city in modern Hungary have been brought to life in remarkable fidelity for a new exhibition in Budapest.<\/p>\n
The display, which runs until Oct. 31, showcases highly detailed facial reconstructions from over a dozen skulls found in the ancient city of Aquincum, once a bustling Roman settlement on the empire’s Danube frontier.<\/p>\n
Visitors to the Aquincum Museum come face-to-face with hyperrealistic models of Roman-era individuals, each crafted using DNA analysis and other techniques from fields such as archaeology and anthropology to determine how the people may have looked in life nearly 2,000 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main goal was to bring a few of these individuals closer to the people of today,\u201d said Lor\u00e1nt Vass, an archaeologist and the exhibition’s co-curator.<\/p>\n
The title of the exhibition, \u201cOnce we were like you,\u201d attempts to answer questions about ordinary people in ancient societies: What did they look like? What were their names? What was their fate?<\/p>\n
Experts with the Aquincum Museum used DNA analysis of unearthed bones to reveal skin, hair and eye color and whether the person may have had freckles.<\/p>\n
The shape, density and other characteristics of the skull revealed details of the structure of the face as well as the person’s age and whether they had sustained any injuries or suffered from disease.<\/p>\n
Based on the findings, curators came up with names, trades and biographical stories to each of the reconstructed faces, giving them new life.<\/p>\n
P\u00e9ter V\u00e1mos, another of the exhibit\u2019s co-curators, said the invented details were \u201cbased on authentic historical foundations\u201d as well as information gathered from analysis of the skulls, which are displayed under the reconstructions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t even know their names, unfortunately, but we tried to incorporate everything that anthropology and genetic studies could tell us about their life history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One character, a construction worker they named Respectus, is described as having made his living in Aquincum plastering walls and splitting stone blocks. The exhibit says the work took its toll on his bones, and in a wine-fueled skirmish in a local tavern, his nose was broken and one of his teeth knocked out.<\/p>\n
The story and social status of Respectus is typical of many Aquincum residents depicted. Vass said their studies showed that the bones of almost all individuals show a \u201cfairly high degree\u201d of inflammation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were subjected to regular physical labor, and in many cases they were exposed to starvation for a certain period of time,\u201d he said. \u201cBased on this, it can be concluded that most of them belonged to the lower middle class, which is the least remembered segment of Roman society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the 16 reconstructions, six are silicon moldings that have been painted and meticulously adorned with true-to-life hair, clothing and jewelry.<\/p>\n
Emese G\u00e1bor, who handcrafted the silicon reconstructions, said that while artificial intelligence also can be used to model ancient faces, \u201cthey just appear on a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advantage of this kind of reconstruction is that it can be displayed in a museum, it can be viewed from all angles and is totally life-size,\u201d she said. \u201cI stick to scientific methods and combine classical and modern scientific methods in this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another valuable piece of information that DNA can reveal is the ethnic origin of the person \u2014 quite illuminating in Aquincum’s diverse settlement.<\/p>\n
Analyses showed the presence of not only Roman citizens with origins in the heart of the empire in modern-day Italy, but also people from as far away as today’s Scotland and Syria, as well as members of the nomadic Sarmatian tribes of the Eurasian steppes.<\/p>\n
Also among Aquincum\u2019s residents were Celts, who inhabited the region in the Iron Age before Roman settlement.<\/p>\n
Vass said that during typical excavations of Roman-era skeletons, artifacts are examined, documented and stored, meaning \u201cthe bodies have no weight, no life, no soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
But by confronting visitors with their ancient predecessors, the museum hopes to forge a connection.<\/p>\n
The exhibition’s title \u201csuggests that they were like we are today. They had the same occupations, the same problems,\u201d Vass said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may have had different life conditions, different social status, but people are people,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that has changed much across history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 A blacksmith, a stable boy, a soldier, a slave: The faces and stories of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13978,6860,22219,2268,2266,27],"class_list":["post-32342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-ap-health","tag-ap-lifestyle","tag-ap-science","tag-ap-world-news","tag-associated-press","tag-rome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}