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)