When archaeologists uncover human skeletal remains, we can’t really know what the individual looked like until an artist, working with forensic anthropologists, reconstructs the face. James Deem focuses on nine sites in North America, dating from 9400 BP (before the present) to 1881, showing how teams of scientists work together to reconstruct details of each individual’s life. He includes a range of people, from a prehistoric man to hitherto forgotten people who died in a nineteenth-century almshouse, sharing what scientists can learn about the lives of these individuals from studying their remains. Once the historical context has been set for each one, we see the artist at work, reconstructing each face. A multitude of crisp color photographs, maps, and diagrams illustrate the well-documented text. (Age 9 and older)

Once, no humans lived on the continent of North America; then they began to journey, the first migrants arriving perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. When a skeleton from long-ago centuries is discovered, scientists want to study it for information about the person’s life and death, about her or his time and place in history. Sometimes artists are asked to reconstruct faces from the past using copies of their skulls. Then these nameless, unknown people can be "brought back to life"--remembered, and honored.

Now, when their skeletons are discovered, their stories can be told.