In the year 2000, cliff erosion at Kimmeridge Bay unearthed the skeletal remains of a young woman who had died in the 1st century AD. The bones were taken to Bournemouth University for analysis and have remained in the university’s archives ever since.
But now, Kimmeridge Woman, as she has been nicknamed, will be going on display at Wareham Museum – with visitors also having the chance to see what she might have looked like thanks to a reconstruction of her face created by a BU student.
MSc Bioarchaelogy student Amber Manning used state-of-the-art technology and methods to recreate Kimmeridge Woman’s face.
A virtual model of the skull was first created using a process called photogrammetry – a method where large numbers of photographs are taken from different angles to calculate the shape of an object.
This was then 3D printed by engineers at the university to create a life-size replica of the skull, which was used to build up layers of the muscles and tissue on the face, as well as Kimmeridge Woman’s facial features.
“I’ve always loved sculpture and art and getting to see this woman come to life in front of me was amazing,” said Amber, who graduated in 2023 and now works as a fieldwork archaeologist for Wessex Archaeology.
“It helps to bring back that humanity to her so once you’ve got her in front of you, it’s a lot easier to feel empathy and imagine even more what her life could have been like.”
She added: “A lot of work has been done to make these techniques as accurate as we can, but we acknowledge that there’s a lot of artistic license that needs to be taken. However, she would likely be recognisable to people from her time if they were to see this reconstruction now.”
The facial reconstruction of Kimmeridge Woman
The almost complete skeleton also gives an insight into what Kimmeridge Woman’s life would have been like around 2,000 years ago.
Radiocarbon analysis confirmed that she lived sometime between the end of the 1st century BC and the middle of the 1st century AD, in late Iron Age or early Roman Britain.
The way her bones have fused together and the amount of wear on her teeth show that she died at a relatively young age and was likely in her mid to late 20s.
The skeleton also indicates that Kimmeridge Woman would have led a life of hard, physical labour.
“We can see signs in the bones of her legs that she spent quite a lot of time squatting, and the muscle attachments on her arm bones show she had quite robust muscles that are used to rigorous, repetitive activities, so it looks like she was involved in some sort of repetitive manual labour,” explained Dr Martin Smith, Associate Professor in Forensic and Biological Anthropology at BU.
Dr Martin Smith with Kimmeridge WomanKimmeridge Woman is one of several individuals from the late Iron Age and Roman periods whose burials have been uncovered in Dorset.
It is likely that she lived during a period of great social change, either prior to the Roman Invasion or when Britain was absorbed into the Roman Empire.
The tribe residing in what is now Dorset at the time of Roman contact was referred to by Roman writers as the 'Durotriges'.
Dr Smith said: “We can see from the archaeology that there’s a very clear, recognisable culture in this part of the world that more or less maps onto modern Dorset, where there is specific pottery these people were making, they were minting their own coins, and they had their own style of burial.”
Dr Smith and other colleagues from the university have also worked with a team of DNA specialists from Trinity College Dublin who confirmed that the Durotrigians of Dorset are a discrete population who were closely interrelated to each other, centred around the female line of descent.
Kimmeridge Woman, as well as information about the reconstruction and other archaeological excavations and discoveries at Kimmeridge, will be on display at Wareham Museum from 5th April 2025.
Dr Smith said: “These kinds of finds shouldn’t sit in store cupboards - the past belongs to everyone and everyone should have an opportunity to engage with the lives that we can reconstruct sometimes. In this case, I think Kimmeridge Woman would recognise the landscape that we still live in and know where she was.”
Amber added: “For her to be going on display is a dream come true for me.
“The vast majority of facial reconstructions are done on men and it’s a repeat of history in general. We have opportunities with bones to learn more about these women’s lives, who have just been forgotten about for the most part.
“I very much wanted to look at people who were just ordinary women and to explore that, because I think there’s a beauty in ordinary people’s lives that we tend to overlook.”
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