![Myrtis reconstruction](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Myrtis_reconstruction.jpg)
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 during work to build the metro station at
Kerameikos,
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 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 and used her in the UN campaign "We Can End Poverty".
Reconstruction
![Myrtis skull](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Myrtis_skull.jpg)
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 cm
3. Following scanning, an exact replica of her skull was created, which became the basis for subsequent
forensic facial reconstruction. 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 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 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 ...
ry
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.
See also
*
Women in Classical Athens
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