A FIRST glimpse has been revealed of what people living in Leith up to 700 years ago might have looked like.

Forensic artists have used hi-tech software to reconstruct the faces of remains uncovered during the excavation of the medieval graveyard, dating back to between the 14th and 17th century, as part of the Trams to Newhaven project.

Masters graduate students from the University of Dundee, working closely with project sub-contractors GUARD Archaeology and as part of an ongoing internship with the Council Archaeologist, used special 3D scanners to build up digital versions of skulls discovered during excavations outside South Leith Parish Church. These were the basis for lifelike representations created of the former residents, the first step in the ageing analysis of bodies.

The first two pictures feature a man and woman both aged between 35 and 50. Early forensic analysis indicates that the woman may have suffered from nutritional deficiencies.

Councillor Lesley Macinnes, transport and environment convener, said: “These images give us a fascinating insight into the lives of the people who lived in our city centuries ago. The work being carried out now will not only shed light on the area’s past but will help to conserve it for many years to come.

“This is all part and parcel of the broader project to bring trams to Newhaven, and I’m glad that we’ve been able to involve residents in exciting developments like this, as we progress with such a major scheme.”

Council archaeologist John Lawson added: “These fantastic reconstructions help us connect directly with our forebearers.

Often, we as archaeologists just see the physical remains but the work undertaken by Dundee University’s forensic artists helps put the flesh, so to speak, back onto these remains and by doing so I feel brings them closer to us today.”

Excavations were carried out in summer last year outside South Leith Parish Church, Constitution Street, where previous investigations showed that in the medieval period the church’s graveyard extended across the road with graves surviving beneath the current road surface.

The archaeologists exhumed more than 360 bodies, dating from between 1300 and 1650.