Dante's nose - how did they reconstruct it?

Question

I really don't understand how 'scientists' can reconstruct what a human nose looked like. Isn't the nose composed mostly of cartilage and flesh? I have never seen a skull ( I've been to the killing fields in Kampuchia) that ever had anything except a hole where the nose was. How do they really know if Dante's nose had a hook on it?

Answer 1

There are some historical texts written around the same time and shortly after that suggest Dante had a hooked nose, much like there are texts from the time of Lenoardo Di Vinici and Michelangelo that tell us what they looked like. However words can only do so much.

As for reconstructions of head, it is a bit complex. First, an anthropologist has to study the stress marks left on the skull by the muscels that were once there. Most of the time they use very large and very powerful electron microscopes, but some anthropologists have been doing this for so long they don't need it. Next, they get a "head-builder" to look at the maps, study the skull and them recreate the head out of wax or clay.

A "head builder" is an artist who has had advanced medical and anthropological training and knows how to read the scars on the skull and translate it into something with flesh and muscel. More modern "head builders" use computers with a similar medical understanding to help them out, though most will use that as a rough draft before making the clay head.

Other famous people who have had their heads re-examined in recent years are King Tut, Queen Nefertiti, the Ice-Man, Lucy and a female Neanderthal found in Germany. You can find the articles in a magazine called "Archaeology", if you are interested.

~~ Abaddon

Answer 2

There are a few bones that form it's structure. As I understand it, the ethmoid determine's it's overall projection and porportions, and connects the septum ( nostril dividing cartilidge) to the skull. The nasal bone ( bridge) and it's relationship to the brow ridge can suggest it's overall curvature, a concave slope or a convex curve. Also, where base of the nose meets the upper jaw ( maxilla) might determine curvature, and if the bridge projects beyond the maxilla, and the closer it is to a horizontal right angle it's a good indication that the nose curves downards to connect properly. Usually happens as the skull grows and matures and becomes less gracile, few children have prounced convex curvatures to thier noses for example. Probably why it's phycologically associated with agedness, and agedness, with wisdom, as with Dante. Other sources, citing a fresco portrait are suggesting that he not have a very convex nose, as the team that based thier reconstuction on old measurements concluded.

Answer 3

they dont know for sure what it looked like, but the nose they reconstructed was based on the structure of the skull. they study how a person's nose and skull relate (on people who know what they look like). and that's how they reconstruct it.

Answer 4

You must go to Ravenna Dante's Tomb.
And misure it.

Answer 5

They do not honestly know for sure, they are acting like meteorologists.......guessing. What they have determined cannot be proven right or wrong. No one really knows for sure.