Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday 6 November 2023

Facial reconstructions


I have on several occasions linked on this blog to reports of facial reconstructions from archaeological investigations or other research. Some results, depending to a great extent on the methodology used, are better than others, or more credible as an actual human being. Live Science has now drawn some of these lines of thought together in an article about methods and also showing how new research is refining techniques and adding to verisimilitude by using extracted DNA to indicate probable hair and eye colour. Facial reconstructions as we know them are therefore to be seen in many cases at least as being ‘work in progress’ rather than a completed project. 



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