Forensic reconstruction then applies documented tissue depth data to estimate the thickness of muscle and skin over different parts of the skull.

These tissue depth data come from studies of living people and from forensic cases where skull and face can be compared.

They are averages and ranges rather than exact values for any specific individual.

Building up the face from the skull outward, researchers can determine the overall shape and proportions of the face with reasonable confidence.

The shape of the nose, for example, can be estimated from the shape and size of the nasal aperture in the skull, though there is inherent uncertainty in the exact form of the soft tissue.

For Conquest Man, the reconstruction produced a face with specific, documented features: the receding gray hair consistent with age in a man of 50 to 60; the stubble suggesting incomplete grooming in his later years; the hazel eyes, determined through reference to population genetics data about eye color distributions in medieval northern European populations.