the three methods mentioned, "Russian" the "American" and the
"Manchester," each different from the other.
"The Russians put the anatomical structure on the skeleton and cover
it up. The Americans put the flesh back on the bones based on tissue
density. The English use a combination of both of these methods," he
said.
-Jack Linthicum
Turkish expert rebuilds faces for ancient skulls
ISTANBUL - Sadi Çaðdýr, a forensic medical expert, put a face back on
to a skull from the antique city of Metropolis with the technique of
facial reconstruction, after reassembling the pieces of the broken
skull. 'It is the first facial reconstruction to be undertaken in
Turkey at an excavation site,' he says.
The skull of a man from ancient times has had his face restored after
1,200 years. The Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review was able to
enter the Forensic Medicine Institution in Istanbul's Yenibosna
district by special permission from the Ministry of Justice to witness
a facial reconstruction procedure conducted under the guidance of Sadi
Çaðdýr, a medical forensic expert. One of dozens of skulls from cases
in the laboratory, with its broken tooth and its smiling face
attracted the most attention.
The skull was retrieved during the archaeological excavation of the
antique city of Metropolis, 30 kilometers from the ancient city of
Ephesus of Torbalý, Ýzmir where digging has been ongoing since 1992.
Çaðdýr went to the excavation site last summer at the invitation of
Professor Serdar Aybek, a lecturer at Trakya University's faculty of
archaeology.
Çaðdýr removed a broken skull from the site and painstakingly
reassembled the pieces to recreate the skull. Following this
procedure, Çaðdýr used facial reconstruction techniques to recreate
what the face may have looked like. Çaðdýr said this was the first
facial reconstruction to be undertaken in Turkey at an excavation
site. "The skull of Ada, the Carian Princess, dug up in Bodrum at the
end of the 1980s, had also been reconstructed but the procedure was
handled in Manchester, not in Turkey."
Facial reconstruction within the scope of forensic medicine began in
Turkey in 1993 and assisted with the facial recognition of bodies that
could not be identified. Çaðdýr said the technique proved to be
fruitful.
"Although the results were not 100 percent solid, they were the next
best thing to the original and many identifications could be made in
many cases."
The technique has three different methods according to the information
Çaðdýr provided. The methods are called the "Russian" the "American"
and the "Manchester," each different from the other.
"The Russians put the anatomical structure on the skeleton and cover
it up. The Americans put the flesh back on the bones based on tissue
density. The English use a combination of both of these methods," he
said.
In Turkey, the "Istanbul method," developed by Çaðdýr, is being
practiced. In this method, to acquire the correct data the skull three-
dimensionally scanned. The hardest parts to shape in the
reconstruction are the eyes, nose and lips, according to Çaðdýr.
"The temporal and the cheekbones are the easiest to work with. The
eyelid structure, lip thickness and structure of the nose are unique
to the person in question and therefore, hard to do," Çaðdýr said.
'Details are important to preserve conditions'
He said there were differences between ancient bones and modern bones.
"The ancient bone is white and fragile. There is no rotting in the
tooth but there is abrasion. This abrasion may be the result of the
insufficient digestion of crops they had been eating. New bones,
however, have tissue on them."
Çaðdýr said there were lots of historic cities in Turkey that were the
scene of excavations, yet there was a lack of systematic work on
archaeological bones.
"The details are very important for the preservation conditions of the
bones. Lots of information on civilizations from thousands of years
ago may be acquired through those bones. Many skeletons found in
Anatolian territory have skulls showing signs of having been operated
on. We may come across some very surprising findings."
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