Medieval faces recreated after skulls found in tram works

Forensic artists created images of Medieval residents of Edinburgh – based on skulls found during tram works.

The human remains, dating back 700 years, were found during excavations of a graveyard in Leith.

The remains, found outside South Leith Parish Church, are believed to date from the 14th and 17th century.

The first two pictures feature a man and woman both aged between 35 and 50 years old and were created using a 3D scanner by masters students working in collaboration with the council’s archaeologist.

Early forensic analysis indicates that the woman may have suffered from nutritional deficiencies.

Excavations were carried out in summer 2020 outside South Leith Parish Church, Constitution Street, where previous investigations showed that in the medieval period the church’s graveyard extended across the road with graves surviving beneath the current road surface.

The team of archaeologists, who were working to remove any human remains that could be affected by the tram works, exhumed more than 360 bodies, dating from between 1300 and 1650, as well as finding the apparent remnants of the original medieval graveyard wall.

The remains are now subject to examination and analysis that will reveal information on the origins, health, diseases and diet of the people of medieval Leith.

Council archaeologist John Lawson said: ‘’These fantastic reconstructions help us connect directly with our forebearers.

“Often, we as archaeologists just see the physical remains but the work undertaken by Dundee University’s forensic artists helps put the flesh, so to speak, back onto these remains and by doing so I feel brings them closer to us today.’’