Reconstructing the appearance of historical personalities.

Gerasimov got the widest fame by having reconstructed the true appearance of a number of prominent personalities of the past. “I am a historian,” he said, “my dream is to create a portrait gallery of historical personalities.”

The story of each reconstruction could have been a subject of an original narration. Russian princes Yaroslav the Wise, Andrey Bogolyubsky, Vsevolod “the Powerful Aurochs”; Ivan the Terrible, “sovereign of entire Rus”, and his son Fedor Ivanovich, Asia’s conqueror Timur (Tamerlan) and his descendants; Scythian king Skilur, physician and philosopher Avicenna, the poets Rudaki and Friedrich Schiller, Maria Dostoyevskaya, Admiral Ushakov, Haji-Murat, Aleksandr Parkhomenko – this is a very incomplete list of his works.

Prince Yaroslav the Wise (978 - 1054). Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov, 1939
Shahrukh (1377-1447), Timur’s son, ruler of Samarkand. Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov.Ulugbek (1394-1449) – Timur’s grandson, ruler of Samarkand, prominent astronomer and mathematician. Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov, 1942.
Abu-Abdullo Rudaki   (mid-800s- 914). Tadjik poet. Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov. 1957Skilur, Scythian king. 2nd century BC. Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov, 1946.Admiral Fedor Fedorovich Ushakov (1745-1817). Prominent Russian admiral. Reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov, 1945
Mikhail Gerasimov’s Career
Mikhail Gerasimov as an Archaeologist
Reconstruction of the Face from the Cranium
The Predecessors
Elaboration of the method
Stages in the reconstruction process
Fields of application
Forensic examination
Paleoanthropology and population history
Reconstructing the appearance of historical personalities.
Further development of the method
“Sinanthropus” (Member of the Species Homo Erectus)
Homo Neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man)
Neanderthal Child from Teshik-Tash
People of the Upper Paleolithic
Men of the Mesolite epoch
Men of the Early Metall Epoch
Drawings by M.M. Gerasimov