Forensic Facial Reconstruction under Test

Abstract

Forensic facial reconstruction - rebuilding the face of an individual from skeletal remains for the purpose of identification is, of course, the most unscientific of all the vast array of forensic techniques now available to aid the identification of an individual, but sometimes, especially concerning skeletal remains buried for long periods, a facial reconstruction can still be helpful. I do not intend this paper to be a technical overview on the methodology of facial reconstruction, it centres on the interesting proposition: if several people carried out a facial reconstruction of the same person, would the end products look like each other and, would they be identifiable as the person in life whose face they were attempting to reconstruct? I came to facial reconstruction through my background in archaeology and so my reconstructions were of archaeological remains before I became interested in facial reconstruction techniques for forensic use. Having been asked by the University of Cambridge, UK if I would run a series of training courses at their Institute for Continuing Education at Madingley, I decided the courses would be a great way to test and refine reconstruction techniques. On each course 15 students were given an identical skull cast, tissue depth data set, tool kit, clay and step by step instructions. The big question was, if the course participants failed to produce reconstructions that were identifiable as the same person, what could be improved in terms of methodology to make the system of working more reliable?