Myrtis is the name given by archaeologists to an 11-year-old girl from

ancient Athens Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achieve ...

, whose remains were discovered in 1994–95 in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

during work to build the metro station at

Kerameikos Kerameikos (, ) also known by its Latinized form Ceramicus, is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon Ga ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. The name was chosen from common ancient Greek names. The analysis showed that Myrtis and two other bodies in the mass grave had died of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

during the

Plague of Athens The Plague of Athens ( grc, Λοιμὸς τῶν Ἀθηνῶν}, ) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year (430 BC) of the Peloponnesian War when an Athenian victory still seemed within r ...

in 430 BC. The

United Nations Regional Information Centre The United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC) is one of 63 United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) around the world. Their main task is to spread the UN message, raise awareness and create understanding of issues relating to the United ...

made Myrtis a friend of the

Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenniu ...

and used her in the UN campaign "We Can End Poverty".

Reconstruction

Human skeletal evidence from

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...

is scarce, as most burials at that time were preceded by

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...

. Before Myrtis, no attempt to reconstruct an Ancient Greek layperson's face has been recorded. Myrtis' skull was in an unusually good condition and Greek

orthodontics Orthodontics is a dentistry specialty that addresses the diagnosis, prevention, management, and correction of mal-positioned teeth and jaws, and misaligned bite patterns. It may also address the modification of facial growth, known as dentofacial ...

professor Manolis Papagrigorakis requested help from Swedish specialists to recreate her facial features. A special scanner was employed for the non-invasive acquisition of high-resolution anatomic data of Myrtis' skull. The volume of the skull was determined at 446 cm³. Following scanning, an exact replica of her skull was created, which became the basis for subsequent

forensic facial reconstruction Forensic facial reconstruction (or forensic facial approximation) is the process of recreating the face of an individual (whose identity is often not known) from their skeletal remains through an amalgamation of artistry, anthropology, osteol ...

. The reconstruction process followed the so-called "Manchester method": the facial tissues were laid from the skull surface outward by using depth marker pegs to determine thickness. The shape, size and position of the eyes, ears, nose and mouth were determined through the features of the underlying skeletal tissues. 20 different muscles were sculpted. The thickness of the facial tissues were evaluated according to average values taken from corresponding reference tables for age, gender and race. The mouth width and the lip thickness were estimated by the pattern and the skeletal

craniofacial Craniofacial (''cranio-'' combining form meaning head or skull + ''-facial'' combining form referring to the facial structures grossly) is an adjective referring to the parts of the head enclosing the brain and the face. The term is typically used ...

attributes of the associated area. Myrtis' reconstructed face was given brown eyes and red hair, but the true colors of these can only be determined by

DNA analysis Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

. The hairstyle she was given follows the fashion of the time.

Dental condition

A class II skeletal and

dental malocclusion In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855-1930), ...

was observed in Myrtis' remains. Other reported dental issues are the ectopic labial eruption of the

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

canines Canine may refer to: Zoology and anatomy * a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae ** ''Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals ** Dog, the domestic dog * Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy People with the surn ...

mesially to their retained deciduous predecessors, the ectopic distally directed eruption of a lower first

premolar The premolars, also called premolar teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the canine and molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant in the permanent set of teeth, making eight premolars total in the mouth ...

and a unilaterally missing lower third molar.

Notes

External links

News footage of Myrtis' facial reconstructionDental condition report on Myrtis
{{National Archaeological Museum of Athens 440s BC births 430 BC deaths 5th-century BC Athenians 5th-century BC Greek women Archaeology of Greece Greek children Deaths from typhoid fever Ancient Athenian women Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Child deaths

Reconstruction

Dental condition

See also

Notes

External links