History books try to tell us what life was like thousands of years ago, but they struggle to build up a visual picture. Pay a visit to a museum and you can stare your ancestors in the face – sort of. Many museums display highly realistic portraits of ancient people, from facial reconstructions of prehistoric humans to ancient Egyptian 'mummy portraits' and Pompeiian frescoes.

Read on to meet people who lived and died many years ago, from Neolithic labourers to the so-called 'Inca Ice Maiden'...