Facial reconstruction of a 10,000-year-old woman from Alborz, Iran

She was described by the anthropologist J. Lawrence Angel (1951) as follows:

Hotu 2 and 3 were found partly supine, with their heads together and positioned lower than their footless legs, within the early 4th gravel layer above an underlying sandy deposit. This position suggests a casual backward fall from a higher level near the cave wall and does not rule out accidental death, possibly caused by falling rock disturbed by food-gatherers.

The woman (Hotu 2) was about 167 cm tall, with a muscular yet slender build. Although she showed robust bony ridges, her femoral robusticity index (11.9) indicates a slender shaft. Deep gluteal fossae, pronounced crests, strong adductor tubercles, and enlarged muscle attachment areas on the tibiae suggest well-developed muscles adapted to rough-terrain travel. Her hands were long and narrow, shoulders likely not broad, and hips narrow. While some proportions approach those of lanky modern males and the skull may give a male first impression, the pelvis is clearly female, with a deep inlet and wide outlet. Pelvic features also suggest physical stress, possibly related to carrying children. The pubic symphysis corresponds to early Phase V.
Overall, this woman, about 27 years old, was exceptionally strong, tall, and slender, surpassing the average build of ancient Greek, Medieval Norwegian, or modern American women.

The skull vault is 75–100 cc larger than the modern average (1,325 cc). It is long and high, with a noticeable post-coronal depression and concave temporal planes, suggesting the parietal curve was not fully corrected during growth. The cerebellar area bulges downward, giving the brain cavity a vertically developed, somewhat empty appearance. These vault features resemble those seen in populations across the African and Near Eastern desert zones. However, the broad skull base, wide face, low rectangular orbits tilted downward, small nose, nearly horizontal chewing plane, square jaw angles, and protruding chin are Cro-Magnon-like. This differs from the later Iranian facial type, which is narrower and more sloping. Among the Hotu population, such features as the mouth and chin combination, the Cro-Magnon-like low orbits, the Iranian full cerebellum, and perhaps trends toward sacral hiatus and first molar abscess point to a certain genetic unity, and plausibly "inbreeding."

She had a large cranial length of 186 mm, medium-large cranial width of 135 mm, medium-large cheek width 129 mm.

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