Abstract
There are many excavation centres in Anatolia, most combining international and national teams. Facial reconstruction has been done for many purposes, from forensic medicine to surgical requirement. Recently, it has become favourable in historical findings. Although there are a few techniques for face construction, ethnicity, geography, and age of the skeleton should be taken into account. The aim of this study is to make a facial reconstruction using a different approach, using soft tissue thickness that specifically belongs to the Anatolian people. In the present study, a face is defined using four steps to reach a more accurate construction for Anatolians. First, a skeleton was examined, then soft tissue thickness determined by predefined-MRI pool data, followed by x-ray computed tomography of the skull, and finally, computer aided correction. At the end of this protocol, the face was reconstructed in the best way. Also, for the first time, it was printed using a 3D printer for further analysis and display. The skeleton was found in Topraklık-Bursa (West Anatolia) excavation. The skull was aged about 8500 years old, gender determined as female from examination of the whole skeleton. All measurements of the whole skeleton and facial reconstruction showed high similarities to the people who lived in this region in history.