UPDATED FEBRUARY 8TH 2023
THE ARTICLE PROVES THE POINT THAT
THERE IS LITTLE DIFFERENCE IN EAR SHAPE
AS WE AGE... See Below
Recently it was claimed on the Somerton Man face book page that whilst the images of Carl Webb's left ear taken whilst he was far younger, would have changed as he grew older. As you will see, that is not the case.
...Convenient though it may be to do so, the fact that Carl Webb's left ear does not match the Somerton Man's left ear cannot 'Be Explained' away by lighting, angles, or descriptions of how ears change over time. The photographic evidence in this post will show that Carl Webb's left ear did not change and it doesn't match the left ear of the Somerton Man. Carl Webb Was Not The Somerton Man. We have images of Carl Webb's ear from 1949
Read on...
In the following images you will see close up images of Carl Webb's left ear compared to the left ear sculpted on the plaster bust fo what was supposedly, the Somerton Man.
IMAGE SET 1.
IMAGE OF LEFT EAR COMPARISONS, PLASTER BUST AND CARL WEBB
And here's the marked up version below:
Now let's look at how the left ear of the Somerton Man left ear compares:
There is really no comparison, the left ear on the bust matches the left ear of Carl Webb but looks nothing like the left ear of the Somerton Man.
The photographs of the plaster bust above were taken relatively recently and you can see that it has had a small repair evidenced by a line from the upper left down to the middle right of the picture. However, you can also see the similarities in the shapes of both ears. The tapered outer helix is almost identical in both images and the point at which the inner helix breaks off to the left is quite clear.
Paul was the man who created the bust and who used the Police photographs to model the facial features on the bust. Be prepared for surprises.
To be certain, I have included another image comparison with the bust taken somewhat earlier than the one above and prior to the repair:
Once again the left ear of the bust matches the tapered left ear of Carl Webb but not the left ear of the Somerton Man.
Below is the marked up comparison of the previous image:
In the image above, you can see the outer Helix of all three are matched as shown by the tapered line. The inflection point as shown by the circle is almost identical and any difference looks to be due to the repair. Finally, I have dotted along an apparent ridge line between the outer and inner helix of all three images.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 8th 2023
As the headline suggests, evidence has been found that disagrees with Professor Abbott's view that the difference in ear shape between Carl Webb to the Somerton Man was down to the age difference of Carl. The evidence says that it is just the ear lobe that changes, it lengthens the shape of the ear and does not change its shape. Here's the abstract of the article:
ABSTRACT
The human ear is a defining feature of the face. Its subtle structures convey signs of age and gender that are unmistakable, however, not easily defined. With analysis of normative cross-sectional data, this study endeavors to show anatomic and aesthetic differences between men and women, as well as changes in ear morphology with age. 123 volunteers were randomly selected for this study. The cohort consisted of 89 women with an age range of 19 to 65 (median 42) and 34 men age range of 18 to 61 (median 35). The average total ear height across the entire cohort for both left and right ears was 6.30cm. The average lobular height was 1.88cm. The average lobular width was 1.96cm. As expected based on head size, significant male/female differences were noted in the distance from the lateral palpebral commissure to both the helical root and insertion of the lobule. Measured distances for males were approximately 4.6% longer in both vectors compared to women. Similarly, the height of the pinna was significantly larger in men compared to women by approximately 6.5%. The average height and width of the lobule between males and females, however, were nearly identical. Analysis of age-related data showed a significant difference in the total ear height between the subpopulations. When the lobular height was subtracted from the total ear height, however, statistical significance was lost. This suggested that the lobule was the only ear structure that changed significantly with age. In addition, lobular width significantly decreased with age. This study establishes normative data for ear morphology and clearly demonstrates the changes in earlobe morphology with advancing age.
Here's the link:
WHY IS THERE NO MATCH TO THE SOMERTON MAN LEFT EAR?
To clarify what is a little complex situation, we need to revisit the history of the building of the bust.
Paul Lawson was instructed to build the bust of the man pointed out to him at the West Terrace Morgue by Detectives.
He was told to use the original Post autopsy photographs to model the face as the Police were not happy with the 'condition' of the body.
He was told to use the original Post autopsy photographs to model the face as the Police were not happy with the 'condition' of the body.
The Police supplied two photographs from the autopsy:
1. Full Face
The full-face image shows the left ear in good detail but not as detailed as the profile of the right side of the man. The Left Ear is fully attached.
2. Right side profile image
Notice that in the image above the Somerton Man's right ear is only partially attached. In contrast, the man's Left ear is fully attached. See the Illustration below:
 |
| FREE PARTIALLY ATTACHED ATTACHED |
You will notice that there is no Left Side profile image of the Somerton Man, just the right side.
Here's a close-up of the Right Ear taken from the image above and it is shown in comparison to the right ear modeled by Paul Lawson.
The detail is truly a credit to Mr. Lawson.
When it came to creating the left ear though, Mr. Lawson had a problem, there was no profile image of the left ear he had only what he could see of that ear from the front face view.
This explains why the right ear on the bust was nowhere near as detailed as the left ear.
In the absence of a good clear image of the left ear, Mr. Lawson could only do what he could do and that was to model the ear from the left ear on the body, that body being of Carl Webb and NOT the Somerton Man as we have shown.
This is why we have a Match between Carl's left ear and the plaster bust's left ear and No Match between the Somerton Man's left ear and the bust.
The body on whom the plaster bust was built may have been Carl Webb's but it was clearly not the body of the Somerton Man
If you think you already know something, you are prevented from learning anything new about that subject... EPICTETUS.
On this blog the focus is on getting to the truth, that truth has been shrouded in untruths and misleading statements for reasons best known to those who, using the media, actively promote themselves ahead of the search for truth.
Professor Abbott posted recently on the shape of ears and what changes can occur as people age suggesting that Carl Webb's ears when he was younger would have changed by the time he was 43.
ReplyDeleteI followed up on the information and it is not quite correct. A paper described the ear changes and in plain English it meant that the study that was undertaken aimed to find out information about the size and shape of ears, differences between left and right ear shape and how these change as people age. This information was gathered by measuring the position of soft-tissue landmarks on the ears and face of 497 male and 346 female participants aged 4-73 years using a computerized electromagnetic device. The results showed that, on average, men have larger ear dimensions than women and that ear dimensions become larger with age. Importantly the study also found that the position of the ears was generally symmetrical but some differences in shape were seen based on age and sex. The data collected in the study can be used to describe normal ear growth, development, and aging and can also have applications in forensic science.
In other words the biggest changes were not in the shape of the ear which generally stayed symmetrical but the size/dimensions grew larger as the subjects grew older. Given the Somerton Man's age of around 43, his ears would not have grown that much at his age. It is always best to question the precise meaning of information from that source.
Th professor also stated that the ears in the image on that post were generally the same shape, one was an image of the young soccer playing Carl and the Somerton Man and both ears were entirely different. You can find the post here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tamamshud
Agree with that Gordon. Trying to make sense of some of the discussions going on in other places is like trying to smell the colour 9.
ReplyDelete