THE BROKEN FACE

Then vs Now · Episode 8 · Forensic · Wed 2 Dec 2026

They Pushed Needles Into Dead Faces to Find Bach

Premieres Wed 2 Dec · 12:00 ET They Pushed Needles Into Dead Faces to Find BachJoin the list below and we'll send it the day it's out.
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Leipzig, 1894: workmen dig up an oak coffin that might hold Johann Sebastian Bach. To test the skull, the anatomist Wilhelm His pushes fine needles into the faces of the dead to measure how thick a face really is, and a sculptor builds Bach's face back on a copy of the skull. Was it really Bach? Follow the method from Leipzig to Gerasimov opening Timur's tomb in Samarkand in June 1941, a forensic artist at a federal aviation lab in Oklahoma City, Richard Neave and the skull from Philip II's royal tomb, Tutankhamun and Richard III rebuilt from CT scans, and how jaw surgeons use the same idea today.

Every Then vs Now episode ends with what a surgeon would do today.

Chapters

  1. 0:00Leipzig, 1894: whose skull?
  2. 0:37His and the needle test
  3. 1:47Gerasimov: face after face
  4. 2:08Timur's tomb and the legend
  5. 3:05America: from museums to police work
  6. 3:57Neave and the skull from Vergina
  7. 5:21Built on a computer: Tutankhamun
  8. 5:47Richard III
  9. 6:16Quick pause: free quiz
  10. 6:43How close are these faces?
  11. 7:23Was it really Bach?
  12. 7:47Then vs Now: jaw surgery today
  13. 8:24Before you go

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Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Disclosure

Forensic Facial ReconstructionCaroline WilkinsonView on Amazon.ca →
Craniofacial IdentificationCaroline Wilkinson & Christopher Rynn (eds.)View on Amazon.ca →
Forensic Art and IllustrationKaren T. TaylorView on Amazon.ca →

Sources

Facts were checked against multiple sources. Key references (full list in the pinned comment on YouTube):

Some visuals are illustrations or reconstructions. For education only — not medical or legal advice.