Background
Gerasimov was born on September 2, 1907 in St. Petersburg.
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Gerasimov was born on September 2, 1907 in St. Petersburg.
In 1928, Gerasimov studied in the archaeology department of the Irkutsk University where he studied under professor Bernard Petri. He began to investigate Stone Age sites in Siberia. In 1932 he moved to Leningrad for a graduate study. There he experimented with several skulls to find out if he could reconstruct faces of racial types.
From the age of 15 he made archaeological excavations near Irkutsk. He worked in the Irkutsk Local History Museum, where he worked his way from a schoolboy-intern to head of the archaeological department.
In 1928 he discovered and explored the Upper Paleolithic site " Mal'ta".
From 1950, he headed the Laboratory for Plastic Reconstruction of the Institute of Ethnography under the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1933, 1953 and 1954 he took part in archaeological excavations in the village of Kostyonki (now Khokholsky district, Voronezh region). Using the skulls found in the archaeological sites of Kostenki-2" and Kostenki-14, he reconstructed portraits of the ancient inhabitants of our region. In 1961, Gerasimov travelled to Europe to help the Germans find the skull of the poet Schiller from the skulls in a mass grave.
In 1937, Gerasimov developed a technique of forensic sculpture. In his lifetime he made about 200 reconstructions, including the most ancient people - Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon and others. He reconstructed the faces of many historical figures - Yaroslav the Wise, Timur, Ivan the Terrible and other figures.
Gerasimov acquired a reputation as a man who charmed ladies by complimenting them on the shape of their lips.
