engleski

Forensic Facial Reconstruction of the mummified remains of St. Nicolosa Bursa

This study shows the forensic facial reconstruction of the mummy of St. Nicolosa Bursa whose body is kept in the parish church in Vodnjan. This Saint was imaged by Mult-Slice Computed Tomography (MSCT), on Somatom 16 device (Siemens, Erlangen, Germany), with 16 rows of detectors and the spatial resolution of 30 lp/mm. Parameters for scanning used in the study were 120 kVp, 162 mA, protocol - Body Angio Routine, Convolutional Kernel B30f. For the acquisition, the slice thickness was 16×0.75 mm, and 3 mm for image reconstruction. The 3D model of the skull was created by 3D Surface Rendering technique using software DICOM viewer, Osirix v.3.9.4 (Pixmeo, Geneva, Switzerland). The model was exported, post- processed in software Blender v2.79, and printed on the 3D printer FORCEBOOK UltraPrint 3D with a slice thickness of 0.15 mm. The facial reconstruction was performed using the Manchester method, developed at the University of Manchester in the UK. The face of St. Nicolosa was reconstructed firstly by positioning the tissue depth markers on the 3D printed model. In the next step, the individual muscles were attached to the skull, and skin layer was applied. In the final stage, the face of the Saint was completely defined using artistic approach. The researcher that conducted facial reconstruction did not know the identity of the person being reconstructed. Thus the success of facial reconstruction could be compared both with the pictorial sources and face of the mummified body. In this study, we showed that facial reconstruction could be accurate when performed by a trained person with knowledge of anatomy, forensics, anthropology, and arts. This method can be used in presentations of cultural heritage, reconstruction of historical figures as well as in scientific research.

facial reconstruction ; relics ; St. Nikolosa Bursa ; Vodnjan ; mummified remains

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