aDNA, ethnography, and facial approximations of the Teouma Lapita burials (c. 3000BP)

Abstract

Although ancient DNA (aDNA) cannot predict the facial appearance of skeletal human remains, knowing which extant populations are most closely related to the deceased has proven to be invaluable in rectifying two early facial approximations (popularly known as facial reconstruction) undertaken 15 years ago. These concerned two of the crania excavated from the Lapita burial site at Teouma on the island of Efate, and are associated with the first human arrival in the Vanuatu archipelago approximately 3000 years ago. This experimental revision to incorporate aDNA into both the methods and results has found there are advantages of knowing the genetic affiliation for estimating facial appearance. Specifically, we have found that this knowledge (i) facilitates identifying which of the current statistically valid predictors of the facial features are the most appropriate, (ii) informs the depiction of sexually dimorphic patterns of facial aging, and (iii) guides the portrayal of the subtle facial morphologies that fall outside what is currently provided by statistically validated skull-soft tissue algorithms and inter-relationships.