Anthropometry, which is part of Physical Anthropology, is a study of human anatomy and skeleton, including things like sexual dimorphism, similarities, racial differences, age, and individual differences. The study of the skull and its relationship to other tissues such as skin, muscles, fat, and so on is crucial in anthropometry.
In the beginning, anthropologists used fossils to figure out how people and primates looked in the past and how they looked now. It helps you figure out who the person is, answer a lot of questions about evolution, and teach you about anatomy. The first person to use the two-dimensional technique of superimposition was anatomist Hermann Welcker. He used the death mask and portrait of Kant and Raphael and their skulls to figure out how to make the face of each of them look. As time went on, 3D superimposition techniques were also made.
Using information from physical anthropology and medical science to make facial reconstructions began when Forensic Anthropology became a specialised field of study. This was when the two fields were combined. The anthropological inputs look at the size and shape of the skull based on gender, sex, and race with information like-
- There are a lot of things that connect the skull to the bones and features like unusual landmarks, the shape of the mandible, the symmetry of the nasal bones, the roughness of the muscle attachments, and so on.
- The thickness of soft tissue; how teeth are aligned; and how the nose, lips, and other parts of the face are reconstructed.
When new technologies and computer models are used together, they make facial reconstruction more accurate and faster, but it hasn’t been accepted as evidence in most countries because it doesn’t take into account unique facial features and the facial reconstructions from two experts look different because they’re made up. Still, it helps investigators and family members make facial approximations in criminal cases where there are unidentified bodies. When all other identification methods have failed, it gives them a unique option. Today, anthropological techniques are used in photo superimposition, such as facial reconstruction, criminal picture formation, and photo deciphering.
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