The face of Stonehenge: 3D surface scanning, 3D printing and facial reconstruction of the Winterbourne Stoke cranium

Abstract

Stonehenge is one of the world’s most iconic archaeological sites and yet we know relatively little about the people that created this important prehistoric monument. This chapter contributes to this narrative by reconstructing the face of a high-status male who was recovered during nineteenth-century excavation of a Neolithic Long Barrow. Situated in the barrow cemetery at Winterbourne Stoke, this site is important to the contextual setting and contemporary development of Stonehenge as a ceremonial and ritual centre. The chapter reports on the combination of digital bioarchaeology and visual heritage methods, together with forensic reconstruction, that transformed the physical remains of the individual into digital data that was manipulated for 3D printing; and subsequent anatomical and visual art interpretation to yield physical life-like characteristics. His facial features have been rebuilt on the 3D printed skull, muscle by muscle, to create a highly realistic face from the era. The aim of this project was to provide a tangible connection to the archaeology of the Stonehenge landscape and to the people that developed its ceremonial and ritual significance—narrowing the temporal distance through the emotional experience it means to gaze into the eyes of a Neolithic individual.