Meet your ancient Chinese predecessors face to face

Facial reconstructions of prehistoric humans from the ancient Jiahu culture — which existed more than 8,000 years ago — were unveiled on Tuesday in Zhengzhou, Henan province. They give members of the public a glimpse of the appearance and features of their Stone Age predecessors.

Wang Wei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and president of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, said that researchers have successfully reconstructed the physical features of some Jiahu individuals using human-bone specimens unearthed at the site.

"Cold ancient bones are now brought back to life with reconstructed faces. This is a big breakthrough in scientific archaeology," Wang said. "People can now virtually meet an 8,000-year-old ancestor face to face across time and space," Wang said.

Zhu Hong, a professor at Jilin University's bioarchaeology laboratory, said researchers established — via hip bone observations and tooth wear — that the ancient person was a strong man about 25 to 30 years of age. He had a regular oval skull, a prominent glabella (between the eyebrows above the nose bridge), strong supraorbital ridges, thick cheekbones, firm and flat facial contours and moderately sized nasal structures.

These physical features matched the typical characteristics of prehistoric humans of the ancient Central Plains type, Zhu said.