Discovery Channel: Hanging Coffins
Historical Portrait Sculpture Television Documentary for Discovery Channel of Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China, Bang Productions, Singapore, LLC
I was privileged to be a part of this amazing documentary produced by Keiko Bang at Bang Productions, Singapore, LLC for the Discovery Channel International. In the remote mountains of Southwest China, precarious hanging coffins are all that remain of the mysterious Bo people. This award-winning documentary film follows a team of archaeologists into the unexplored depths of Yunnan. For the first time, I was able to give one of the skulls from Yunnan a face in the form of a forensic sculpture.
I was given a resin replica of the ancient skull, produced by scanning and 3D printing. It was necessary to recreate the missing mandible, a task I have successfully done a number of times on forensic identification-related cases. I also used the maxillary or upper dental fossa areas to get clues for re-building the upper dentition. The addition of teeth helps to more accurately determine the overall facial height. The American Method with average tissue depths was primarily used with consideration given to the muscular anatomy as indications were visible on the skull.
This is my projection of the frontal facial view based on the ancient skull. An indication of an epicanthal fold of the eye was intentionally made more pronounced on the right eye. Since it could not be accurately determined from the skull, I opted to show two different options.
Lateral view of the sculpted facial reconstruction.
One of the most amazing things in the documentary was a shot in which they superimposed my reconstruction over the face of a modern tribesman from that area and it fit perfectly. Many believe that the Bo People no longer exist, but this superimposition is very thought-provoking. The production won BEST DOCUMENTARY: ASIAN TV AWARDS, 2004.
The work done on this project was also featured in the lifestyle magazine Hong Kong Tatler in an article called "Tomb With a View."
