颅面复原技术在体质人类学中的应用

An overview of craniofacial reconstruction technology application in physical anthropology

面貌是人类最重要的特征,其形态受到颅骨几何形态、面部软组织分布以及性别、年龄、身体质量指数、营养状况等多种因素的影响。考古遗址出土的古代人类遗骸,其面部软组织大多已经消失,如何根据颅面形态关系推测古人类颅骨的生前面貌已成为人类学家和考古学家关注的热点问题之一。传统手工颅面复原是由人类学家和艺术家使用雕塑技艺在颅骨上用可塑物质生成其生前面貌的技术。近年来,随着医学影像采集和计算机技术的发展,计算机颅面复原技术已经成为信息科学、体质人类学、法医人类学交叉研究的前沿技术之一。本文通过梳理和归纳相关文献的研究方法,对手工颅面复原技术、计算机颅面复原技术和颅面复原结果评价方法作简要综述,并对颅面复原技术在体质人类学中的应用进行了回顾和展望。

Facial appearances are one of the most important features of humans.Facial shapes relied heavily on the geometric shape of skulls,craniofacial morphology relationship between skulls and faces and gender,age,ethnic,body mass index(BMI),nutritional status,etc.After the humans’skeletons are excavated from archaeological sites,facial soft-tissue tissues and muscles usually have been disappeared.It has become one of hot topics for anthropologists and arachnologists to predict the facial appearances of these unidentified skulls.Traditional craniofacial reconstruction(CFR)methods are based on manual technologies that anthropologists collaborated with artists to model a facial appearance on a skull replica with plasticine.During recent thirty years,the improvement of medical image acquisitions technologies and the progress in computer technologies have had a great impact on CFR,and computerized CFR has become one of cutting-edge technologies in the interdisciplinary study of information science,physical anthropology and forensic science.The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing manual CFR methods,computerized CFR methods and assessment methods by summarizing the research methods of related literatures.Finally,this paper reviews the progresses of CFR application in physical anthropology and gives some suggestions for further research.