The Reconstruction of a Saxon Man’s Face

Seventh-century Saxon skull and the facial reconstruction carried out by Caroline Wilkinson, HA260108.9

To the right is the face of a man who lived in Brighton 1,400 years ago. Caroline Wilkinson, a facial reconstruction specialist at the Unit of Art in Medicine at Manchester University, has been able to recreate the man’s features by examining the unique shape of his skull.

The man’s skeleton has been part of the Archaeology Collection since 1985. It was found during the emergency evacuation of an Anglo Saxon burial site located in Stafford Road, Brighton. Attention was drawn to the site after builders unearthed a number of grave goods during construction work on a private house. The East Sussex Archaeology Project and Brighton Museum were given three days to record and rescue as much information as they could before the building work continued. This man was discovered lying in his seventh-century grave, clutching an iron knife in his right hand and with a bronze belt buckle at his waist.

Inspired by the Unit of Art in Medicine’s work on facial reconstruction for television history programmes like Meet the Ancestors and Time Team, we decided to reveal the face of this seventh-century Saxon man in a display exploring images of the human body. The project was made possible through the generous sponsorship of American Express.

The Reconstruction

1. Thirty-four key anatomical points are marked on a cast of the skull. 2. The muscles of the face are moulded in clay onto the cast. 3. The completed reconstruction

Caroline Wilkinson established the general form of the man’s face by working from the shape of his skull, while a careful examination of the bone gave her clues about the detail of his features.  For example, a hole in the bone around his mouth shows that he had an abscess above his left front tooth, and would have had a swollen lip. A small divided bone at the base of his nose shows that he had a dent at the tip of his nose. The bones on top of his skull have completely fused together, indicating that the man was in his forties when he died.

Using her knowledge of the formation of facial muscles, Caroline rebuilt the layers of his face in clay on a cast of the original skull. As a guide she marked thirty-four key anatomical points on his face and used a set of average tissue depths for a Caucasian man in his forties. The accuracy of this method of reconstruction had been tested by forensic work done with the police. The same process is occasionally used as a last resort for dealing with unidentified bodies and has a remarkably high success rate.

Caroline covered the Saxon man’s modelled muscles and fat with layers of clay skin. Finally she added his hair and moustache, the style of which were chosen according to portraits of men on Anglo-Saxon coins. A silicone mould of the completed clay head was made. From this a bronze resin cast was produced.

The cast is exhibited alongside the seventh-century skull in the Body Gallery in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Although we can never be sure exactly what the man looked like, when we see his face in this reconstruction he seems to come to life again.

This text was originally published on the Royal Pavilion and Museums’ main website. 

Murder in the Royal Pavilion: Peter James’ new novel, Not Dead Yet

Last month, multi-million selling writer Peter James published his latest thriller Not Dead Yet, the eighth in the popular crime series featuring the charismatic and complex Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. All the Roy Grace novels are set in Brighton and its surroundings, but this book is particularly exciting for us as it is mostly set in the Royal Pavilion. It includes dramatic scenes that will have anyone who has visited the Royal Pavilion on the edge of their seats, and features several areas of the building that will only be familiar to those who work here.

As usual, James’s storyline is multi-layered and character-based, with some shocking twists that even avid crime fiction readers might not see coming. Without giving too much of the plot away, Gaia, the most famous pop star in the world, returns to her home town of Brighton to star as Maria Fitzherbert in a major Hollywood movie about her relationship with the Prince Regent. Gaia’s personal safety is put at risk by a stalker and Sussex Police have the unenviable task of protecting her during the filming.

The Pavilion features throughout the novel, beginning with a bullied schoolboy’s memory of blissful times when he used to hide in the Saloon Bottle, John Nash’s central onion-shaped dome:

‘It was love at first sight. The first time [he] saw Brighton’s Royal Pavilion, he was smitten […] he had never seen anything like it before in his life. It was a place that belonged to someone’s imagination, someone who tried to escape from the nastiness of the world into the labyrinth of beauty inside his head.  […] Safe. No bullies up here. He could close his eyes and imagine himself living here, a king, worshipped and adored.’

Interior of the Royal Pavilion Saloon Bottle

In typical Peter James / Roy Grace style the story soon turns deliciously dangerous, gory and scary, and the Pavilion becomes a crime scene more than once. Reading this thriller is an absolute joy for anyone who has any connection with the building. The descriptions of the structure and layout of the building are deliberately inaccurate in parts, but Peter James has done his research well and even includes real-life members of staff in the story. Curator David Barry, a ‘tall, elegant man in his fifties, in a chalk-striped suit’ is a thinly disguised David Beevers, the Keeper of the Royal Pavilion;  ‘resident historian’ Louise Hulme, an ‘academic looking woman, with long fair hair clipped back’, is our guide Louise Hume, whose character rightfully challenges the director of the Hollywood movie on issues of historical accuracy. Other members of staff are thanked in the acknowledgements and Peter James encourages his readers to support the Royal Pavilion and Museums Foundation.

Dragon Chandelier in the Royal Pavilion Banqueting Room

One of the villains of the story plans to kill Gaia and a few other famous actors by making the Dragon Chandelier collapse onto them during the filming of a crucial scene in the Banqueting Room. He gains access to the roof structure and pours a metal-dissolving acid onto the chandelier’s fixings. In the most spine-tingling part of the story the chandelier does indeed fall down and leaves one person dead. Here is the scene in its cruel beauty:

‘The floor shook under the massive, splintering crash, as if a bomb had gone off in the room. There was a jangling, reverberating boom. Hundreds of the 15,000 glass drops shattered, sending a glittering, shimmering display of coloured light into the air, for an instant, like a firework. Lights in the grand room flickered. Goblets on the table crashed over, shattering, spilling their contents; plates, chandeliers and tureens slid down into the tangled mess of chains, gilded metal framework and glass.’

When an ashen faced David Beevers (sorry, David Barry) comes to the scene of carnage he exclaims, ‘This was King George’s worst nightmare.’

The Dragon Chandelier from below, early 20th century.

Hook and trapdoor in the Royal Pavilion Saloon Bottle

Many of the lesser known subterranean and hidden rooms and corridors of the Royal Pavilion feature in the thriller, including the tunnel that runs through the Pavilion gardens. The dramatic finale of the story is set in the intriguing small rooms in John Nash’s Saloon Bottle. These rooms do indeed exist but for health and safety reasons they are not open to the public. If Peter James readers would like to see them and the narrow spiral staircase that leads up there, you can view some photos of the rooms on Flickr, and enjoy this short clip from our You Tube channel showing these fascinating interiors.

Peter James’ Not Dead Yet is available from the Royal Pavilion shop, and other good bookshops.

Alexandra Loske,
Researcher and Guide at the Royal Pavilion