Scientists reveal the oldest known human face after rebuilding a 315,000-year-old Moroccan skull digitally

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026.

A digital reconstruction of fossil fragments from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, has produced the image of a dark-skinned man with long black hair, a bushy beard, deep-set eyes, a broad nose and full lips. To build the model, researchers used 3D imaging, photography and video of the skull fragment alongside jawbone and tooth fossils recovered nearby. Published in the journal Heritage, the study describes the result as the 'oldest known representation' of Homo sapiens. The skull was initially misidentified as an African Neanderthal around 40,000 years old before scientists in 2017 correctly dated it to 315,000 years ago.

The Jebel Irhoud site was originally a mineral extraction site where the skull, known as Irhoud 1, was first unearthed in the 1960s.