MAKING FACES (Texas a & M University Anthropology Series)

By John Prag, Richard Neave, A. J. N. W. Prag

Book Overview

The compelling story of pioneering work in reconstructing the facial appearance of ancient people. Archaeologist Prag & medical artist Neave give first-hand accounts of the search for evidence to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890967849
• ISBN13: 9780890967843
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 2.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Don't expect a glossy, National Geographic look for this one...

This book is a fascinating chronicle of the work of several major forensic reconstructionists from around the globe, and the major techniques they employ. The faces they are re-creating are those of men like Phillip II of Macedonia (Alexander the Great's father), King Midas, King Agamemnon, Egyptian mummies, and bog people. Seeing history coming to life under their masterful craft is deeply rewarding, though the pictures are not always of the highest quality. Some of the photos are grainy, and very few are in well-detailed color. Still, each photo captures something unique about the projects they are working on. A great deal of the book is given over to text describing the historical figures and then the forensic techniques. It's a wonderful selection for an astute student of history and reconstructions as a whole, and is a fresh look at forensic facial reconstruction (particularly 3-D) for those studying the field from a more law enforcement standpoint. As a University student in an anthropology program, as well as a forensic art class, I found this book to be a lovely merging of the two fields, bringing the past to life in a way that has only recently become possible.

fascinating

This book describes the author's techniques for reconstructing faces from skulls, both modern and ancient. the illustrations are wonderful, the text is very interesting. I would like to have seen a little more analysis of the weaknesses in the technique (mainly what author calls the "soft tissues," and possible approaches to increasing accuracy, or alternative versions of the same skull with soft tissue variations). this is a quibble, though.

Fun reading, with occasional frustrations

A book by two people who specialize in recreating faces of historical figures from their skulls. This book covers some of their best known reconstructions: Philip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great), King Midas, and Lindow Man to name a few. Most of the discussion is great fun (especially re: Philip), but the authors occasionally get a bit tedious (most notably they repeat, over and over again, the injunction not to judge how a face while in the process of reconstruction).