Face of 9,500-Year-Old Man Revealed for First Time

The 9,500-year-old Jericho Skull contains a human cranium packed with soil and covered with plaster to replicate individual facial features. Sea shells are used to represent the deceased's eyes. Researchers have reverse-engineered the ancient ritual practice that created one of The British Museum's most important artifacts--the Jericho Skull--revealing the face of a man whose remains were decorated and venerated some 9,500 years ago. The Jericho Skull is also considered the oldest portrait in the museum's collection, and, until recently, its most enigmatic: a truncated human skull covered in worn plaster, with eye sockets set with simple sea shells that stare out blindly from its display case. A facial reconstruction based on the human remains found inside the Jericho Skull.