Restoring the face of a woman who was supposed to be the wife of Jesus

Scientists successfully reconstructed the face of Mary Magdalene, who was said to be the wife of Jesus, based on an ancient skull.

In the medieval town in the south of France, the crypt beneath the church contains one of the world's most famous remains, including the skull and bones belonging to Mary Magdalene , who is said to be the wife of the Lord. Jesus followed some hypotheses. A scientist and a painter relied on the remains to shape the face of a living woman, National Geographic reported on September 12.

The portrait restoration is based on the computer model of the skull, depicting a woman with a pointed nose, high cheekbones and round face. For those who believe the skeleton belongs to Mary Magdalene, this is the face of one of the most famous women in Christianity.

'We are completely unsure whether this is actually the skull of Mary Magdalene,' said Philippe Charlier, a biologist at the University of Versailles. 'But the important thing is to get it out of anonymity.' Charlier worked on reconstruction with Philippe Froesch, a forensic painter.

The researchers restored Mary Magdalene's face.(Video: National Geographic).

Mary Magdalene has long since become the controversial figure in the Christian church. Beginning in the 5th century, she was described as a prostitute while unproven hypotheses claim that she is the wife of Jesus.

In 2004, in an interview with National Geographic, Professor Karen King of Harvard College of Theology, USA, emphasized the only conclusive evidence of Magdalene's role indicating she was a follower of Jesus At that time, King concluded Magdalene played an important role in developing the first foundations of Christianity.

The rumors of her remains in southern France attracted much attention in 1279, when Rebecca Lea McCarthy mentioned in the book Origins of the Magdalene Laundries . Despite the lack of evidence of Mary Magdalene's remains, Froesch and Charlier wanted to rebuild the face of the famous skull.

The two began to care about the skull three years before Froesch came to southern France to build another specimen. He went around the small town and while visiting the church, he explored the tomb where the skull was stored behind a glass case.

Since the skull was last studied in 1974, the glass case has been locked. The researchers overcome this by taking more than 500 images of skulls at different angles. Based on these photos, they can create 3D models on their faces with features such as skull size, cheekbones and face structure.

From this information, they could see that the skull belonged to a woman who died about 50 years old and had a Mediterranean base. The shape of the nose and other features are determined through the use of the trigonometric ratio based on characteristics consistent with the age, gender and ethnicity of the skull.

Recreate Mary Magdalene's face on the computer.

Hair photos on the skull indicate the woman with dark brown hair and skin is determined based on the color of skin commonly found in Mediterranean women. A type of clay used to prevent lice is also found on hair fibers.

Some features such as facial weight and facial expressions are recreated by interpretation of Froesch and Charlier. According to Froesch, the restoration process was developed based on forensic techniques commonly used by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in criminal investigations.

In the future, Charlier plans to do more research on the skull outside the glass box. Techniques such as carbon isotope dating can help determine the age of the specimen but are only applicable when taking a small part of the skull, which is not allowed by the Christian church. He also hopes to one day test the remains of DNA to determine geographic origin.

Froesch shared the possibility that they might be working with the remains of a celebrity that made them very emotional. Although the face has only been reconstructed, the group hopes to recreate the entire body from the ribs and femur that accompany the skull.