History and forensic art come together in Budapest, where visitors examined Roman-era skulls displayed beside realistic facial reconstructions as sculptor Emese Gábor recreated ancient faces using 3D-printed skulls and plasticine.
The Aquincum Museum exhibition, titled “Once We Were Like You”, features 16 facial reconstructions from skulls found at the ancient Roman settlement of Aquincum, six of them hyper-realistic silicone models by Gabor. Curators Peter Vamos and Lorant Vass used DNA and anthropological analysis to trace origins as varied as Italy, Scotland, Syria and Sarmatian and Celtic tribes, running until 31 October.
Vass said excavated bones usually end up catalogued in storage with no life or soul, and the exhibition aims to change that. Bone inflammation suggested most residents endured hard labour and hunger, placing them among Roman society’s lower middle class, curators said, though names and trades on display remain historically informed fiction.