See the Digitally Reconstructed Face of an Ancient Man Who Witnessed England’s Greatest Upheaval

Nearly a thousand years ago, at St Peter’s Church in Barton-upon-Humber in northern England, a man was buried in an oak coffin, with his head supported by a grass pillow and three apple wood staffs beside him. Unearthed during archaeological excavations at the church in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the coffin was made from an oak tree felled around 1079—shortly after the Norman Conquest. Researchers nicknamed the skeleton “Conquest Man,” and his story has remained an intriguing archaeological mystery for decades.

Now, new research has illuminated details of Conquest Man’s life and possible origins and produced a digital facial reconstruction. With this new analysis, it feels like we can really get close to him. To be able to now look at his face is to feel we can almost speak to him.” Conquest Man was buried about 13 years after William the Conqueror, the duke of Normandy, invaded England and defeated its Anglo-Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings.

William became England’s first Norman king, and his reign brought sweeping changes to English landholding and aristocratic society. He commissioned the Domesday survey, to collect information about the properties within his kingdom, and accelerated the construction of Norman castles and Romanesque churches. Conquest Man’s burial took place in the private church of one of William the Conqueror’s knights.

English Heritage describes it as a “privileged burial in a Norman-owned church,” while the grave goods reflect traditions associated with Scandinavia. Those clues raise an obvious question: where did this man come from? His tooth-strontium values provide one piece of the puzzle, as they were consistent with the Barton-upon-Humber area.

He was one of approximately 2,800 individuals recovered from the church and churchyard, representing nearly 900 years of burials. Tooth enamel forms during childhood and does not remodel like bone, allowing scientists to use its chemical composition to investigate where a person lived while growing up. Oxygen levels in Conquest Man’s tooth enamel suggest he spent part of his adolescence in a colder climate, while the apple wood staffs found by his side are consistent with burial practices documented in Scandinavia.

Given his estimated age at death, Conquest Man was probably born during the reign of Cnut, who ruled England from 1016 to 1035. Booth tells the Guardian’s Nicola Davis that he considers it plausible—and perhaps most likely—that Conquest Man came to Britain from Scandinavia. Booth also considers it possible that Conquest Man came from Scandinavia to Normandy and then entered England with William’s forces, but regards that scenario as less likely.