The work is being carried out at the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, where scientists are analysing skeletal remains believed to belong to around 200 people who took part in the battle. Facial reconstructions of selected individuals could be completed within 12 to 18 months, said project leader Andrzej Ossowski, a geneticist at the university.
Despite the poor condition of the remains and the passage of more than 600 years, modern technology allows researchers to determine where the fighters may have come from and what they looked like, Ossowski said.
From tens of thousands of bone fragments, researchers selected three skulls believed to have belonged to tall male combatants. Signs of trauma support the conclusion that they died in battle. Analysis of teeth suggests increasing sugar consumption at the time, heavy wear caused by stone-ground flour contaminated with sand, and bone changes linked to tuberculosis.
The main goal is to create realistic facial reconstructions based on biological data rather than artistic interpretation. Advanced genetic analyses are being used to determine traits such as eye and hair colour, while DNA from mitochondrial markers and the Y chromosome may help identify the knights’ origins.
The reconstructions rely on 3D scans from computed tomography, with digital tissue layers added to skull models and refined using genetic data. Ossowski said the combination of methods was unique globally.
The remains were excavated in the 1960s and 1980s from a chapel where fallen knights were buried and were transferred to the university in 2021 through cooperation with regional museums.
(tf)
Source: onet.pl