Faces of the Teouma Lapita People: art, accuracy and facial approximation

In 2008 we completed facial approximations of four individuals from the early Lapita Culture, a seafaring

people who were the first to settle the islands of

the Western Pacific circa 3000 years ago. Typically

an approximation is performed as a 3D sculpture or

using computer graphics. We chose to sketch what

we have been able to determine from the remains

because the artistic conventions of drawing work

with visual perception in ways that are more complementary

to the knowledge, theories and methods

that make up the facial approximation of human

remains.