Beautiful face of medieval woman found in Scottish priory is brought back to life

Scientists have ingeniously created a 3D digital reconstruction of a ‘beautiful’ 14th-century woman and a cleric with a cleft palate – both of whom will talk to visitors at a book festival about life in Scotland’s ‘cradle of Christianity’.

The unknown woman, who died in her twenties and was placed on a bed of shells, was found in the 1950s during vault renovation at the Whithorn Priory site in Dumfries and Galloway.

Using facial reconstruction and computer technology, experts at the University of Bradford have created a lifelike animation of the woman who will tell the story of the priory at an event at Wigtown Book Festival starting today.

The animations are part of Cold Case Whithorn, a project re-visiting the area’s archaeological archive.

The museum service of the National Museums Scotland and the Dumfries and Galloway Council borrowed the skulls of three medieval people for 3D scanning by Dr. Adrian Evans in Bradford.

They were then digitally reconstructed and given lifelike faces with recorded voiceovers to bring them to life.

dr. Christopher Rynn, a craniofacial anthropologist and forensic artist, described the woman and said her skull was the most symmetrical he had ever seen, strongly suggesting she was extremely beautiful.

He said: ‘When the face grows during childhood, during the teenage years, it does not grow symmetrically at the same time. It grows left and right, a bit like walking.

“So if there’s an illness, or even any kind of emotional trauma that could stop you from sleeping and eating for an extended period of time, it’s going to throw off the symmetry of the face.”

“The more illness and trauma in childhood, the less symmetrical the adult face will end up.”

The woman was buried in a stone coffin placed in front of the high altar and next to the grave of Bishop Walter, who was known to have worked in the Diocese of York and became Bishop of Whithorn in 1209. high status despite being so young.

A third skeleton of a man with a cleft palate was also found in a nearby coffin.

All three skulls underwent facial reconstruction as part of the Cold Case Whithorn project.

dr. Adrian Maldonado of National Museums Scotland said: ‘The famous Whithorn excavations were a quantum leap in the archeology of Christianity and, amazingly, they continue to bring new insights into life in medieval Scotland.

“These graves were discovered decades ago, when they couldn’t have anticipated the kinds of questions we can ask now.

“As well as generating critical new scientific data on health and nutrition in the past, the people of medieval Whithorn continue to inspire stories.

‘What better proof of the value of the management of archaeological collections in museums?’

Julia Muir Watt, development manager for the trust, said: “The opportunity to see and imagine these three people from so many centuries ago is a remarkable way of helping us understand our history and origins.

“It’s always a challenge to imagine what life really was like in the Middle Ages, and these reconstructions are a brilliant way to get in touch with who these people from our past really were, of their daily lives, their hopes and their beliefs.’

Whithorn held the tomb of St. Ninian, an 8th-century missionary who converted the Picts to Christianity.

It was also the birthplace of Latinus of Whithorn, the first known Christian in Scotland who lived around 450 AD, and is mentioned on the Latinus Stone – Scotland’s oldest surviving Christian monument.