PHOTOfact: presentation of a new study by Belarusian and Russian scientists "Population of Belarus. Album in faces - a look into the past"

"We are conducting research at many sites, including studying such an important component as burial complexes. Anthropological materials are being identified, which provide us with a rich basis for conclusions, and special analyses are being conducted. It is important for us to look at what our distant ancestors looked like in different historical times: from the Stone Age to the Late Middle Ages and early Modern times. In this book, 26 residents from 23 places throughout Belarus and different historical periods appeared before us in a restored image. Science allows us to reconstruct the appearance of bones and skulls," said Vadim Lakiza, Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

The book presents portrait reconstructions of forty-five rural and urban residents of various territories of Belarus from the early Middle Ages to Modern times. It was also possible to make a graphic reconstruction of the appearance of one man, whose skeletal remains were discovered in the Neolithic burial Krasnoselsky Volkovysk district of the Grodno region.

The map of modern Belarus shows the cities and villages where the material used in the work for anthropological reconstruction comes from. For the first time in the world, we have created a "temporary column" of people from the past.

Scientists are focused on the population of cities and rural settlements of Belarus in the Middle Ages and Modern times. Territories that were part of first a number of principalities of Ancient Russia, then the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus and Zhamait, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. What was the life of the people whose destinies were constantly being stitched by the redrawn map of Europe? Modern methods of physical anthropology, genetics, archeology and related disciplines allow us to study history in more detail, gaining more data on the lifestyle, demographic situation, Paleolithic, diseases and pathologies of people who lived several centuries ago. The monograph provides historical information about the settlements in which archaeologists studied necropolises.

Bone remains from these necropolises were examined in detail using osteological, craniological, and odontological programs by a Russian-Belarusian team of anthropologists; in some cases, geneticists were able to establish phenotypic characteristics (eye color, hair color, etc.) for an individual. Reliable scientific information, including tabular data, is supported on the pages of the book by illustrative material, a special place is occupied by anthropological reconstructions of the face from the skull, demonstrating the lifetime appearance of a person from the necropolis. The color of eyes and hair in many reconstructions is depicted taking into account the result of genetic data, which makes the reconstruction of appearance even more true.