Penza, 6 February 2015. PenzaNews. The exposition “Stone Age people,” dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the publication of the classic monograph “Forensic facial reconstruction” by Mikhail Gerasimov, opened in Penza State Museum of Local Lore on Friday, February 6.

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The opening ceremony was attended by the museum director Vladimir Zimenkov, together with representatives of Penza State University: Oleg Kalmin, head of Human Anatomy Department; Gennady Belorybkin, director of the Institute of Continuing Education; Tatiana Osipova, Deputy Dean of History and Philology of the Pedagogical Institute; and the university students.

The visitors could see plaster casts of skulls of the Stone Age people, model and graphic reconstructions, photographs, and rare books devoted to human evolution and plastic reconstruction, including those dated 19th century. Part of the exposition is devoted to the life and work of Mikhail Gerasimov, as well as the works of his predecessors in the field of forensic facial reconstruction.

As Dmitry Ikonnikov, head of anthropological laboratory of Human Anatomy Department of PSU told PenzaNews agency, this exposition has two goals.

“We have devoted this exposition to the evolution of the Homo genus. On the one hand, we want to show the modern scientific picture of human evolution, on the other hand, to make it possible that the visitors can ‘look into the eyes’ of their distant ancestors who lived thousands, and even millions of years ago. Here is a very nice collection of anthropological plastic reconstructions,” he said.

The exposition will be open for three months.