Face of a Woman who lived in Central Europe nearly 4,000 years ago

Credits:
Accurate anthropological reconstruction of the image of a woman from the grave No. 2, which was discovered in Mikulovice near Pardubice, Czech Republic. (Image credit: archiv MZM)

Skeleton of woman from Bronze-Age Bohemia discovered in Mikulovice near Pardubice, Czech Republic. (Image credit: Jarmila Švédová)

Skull of woman from Bronze-Age Bohemia discovered in Mikulovice near Pardubice, Czech Republic. (Image credit: archiv MZM)

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor
Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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The face of a woman who lived in Central Europe nearly 4,000 years ago has been reconstructed from her skull and remnants of her DNA.

Researchers have reconstructed the face of a petite, dark-haired woman who was among the richest residents of Bronze-Age Bohemia.

The woman was buried with five bronze bracelets, two gold earrings and a three-strand necklace of more than 400 amber beads. Also entombed with her were three bronze sewing needles. She was part of the Únětice culture, a group of peoples from early Bronze Age Central Europe known for their metal artifacts, including ax-heads, daggers, bracelets and twisted-metal necklaces called torcs.

While it's unclear who the woman was, she was very wealthy, said archaeologist Michal Ernée of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.