The Face of Omo I, the 230,000 Year-Old Skull (Digital Reconstruction)

Omo I is a contender for one of the oldest human fossils ever found in the volcanic ash sediment of Omo Kibish in southwestern Ethiopia. Modern humans are thought to have evolved around 300,000 years ago.
ARTIST NOTES: It goes without saying that there is more missing from this skull than there are existing parts, so basically this is reconstructing a reconstruction. For all that, there is enough pieces to suggest the basic shape of the head, jaw, cheek, mandible, and eye sockets. From the skull alone, determining the gender is also tricky, though it has been suggested that the jawline suggests a more feminine profile overall.
The tribes of the people of Omo Valley in Ethiopia remains to be one of the oldest in existence, and this skull amazingly shares a lot of traits with them, primarily the prominent brow line shared by both men and women in contrast with a rather subdued bone structure for the rest of the face.
While the modern tribes tend to decorate themselves with elaborate clothes, beads, and accessories (some going so far as to disfigure themselves to accommodate some decorations) I opted to keep the portrait basic, save for the last-minute addition of a single vertebrae from an ostrich sanded down and painted, hanging from a string of leather.
"Omo I" 2024. Original Digital Art. (c) M.A. Ludwig
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