This ancient human's face is anything but pleasing to look at

Dec 12, 2012 21:51 GMT  ·  By

Anthropologist Susan Hayes has recently finished her work of recreating the face of an ancient human female who supposedly lived about 18,000 years ago.

Because of her size (it could not have weighed more than 30-35 kilograms / 66 and 77 pounds), this long-lost relative was nicknamed “the Hobbit.”

The “portrait” of this ancient human female is anything but an eye-catcher as far as physical beauty goes, meaning that it lacks the big eyes that tend to attract the opposite sex nowadays, and its forehead is pretty much missing.

However, archaeologists are quite excited about finally making her acquaintance, primarily because of the controversy this female and her remains have stirred over the years.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, some researchers have argued that, all things considered, this ancient female was most likely part and parcel of an extinct species that belonged to the human family tree, and whose closest relative was the Homo erectus.

Evidence collected while investigating this female's skull supports this theory, meaning that its brain makeup hints at its belonging to a self-standing species.

Still, others maintain that the remains could very easily belong to a human suffering from microcephalia, a medical condition whose hallmarks are a fairly small head, short stature and some mental retardation.

In order to recreate this ancient female's face, anthropologist Susan Hayes uploaded information obtained while 3D scanning her skull into a computer graphic program. As well as this, she looked at how paleo-artists imagined the Hobbit.

The remains of this ancient female were discovered in a cave on the Island of Flores in Indonesia back in 2003.

“She's not what you'd call pretty, but she is definitely distinctive,” Susan Hayes joked.

“She's taken me a bit longer than I'd anticipated, has caused more than a few headaches along the way, but I'm pleased with both the methodological development and the final results,” Dr. Hayes went on to add.