The tender look on a mother’s face caring for her child. The distorted grimace of a man being brutally tortured. The noble, focused expression on a soldier's face as he arrives at the battlefield. The expressions depicted in ancient sculptures underscore the universality of human facial expressions, offering a glimpse into the lives of our predecessors. 

Recent studies have consistently indicated that humans are inherently predisposed to expressing emotions in certain ways. The most frequently observed emotional states—happiness, anger, fear, sadness, and disgust—have been captured in ancient sculptures from various civilizations. Remarkably, recent scientific studies revealed that sculptures dating as far back as 600 to 3,500 years ago in Mexico and Central America served as visual narratives of the emotional responses exhibited by people in the ancient world. 

In a 2020 publication in Science Advances, Cowen and Keltner conducted a study involving 325 participants tasked with analyzing facial expressions depicted on ancient sculptures. Their aim was to match them with the five basic emotional states. To eliminate any contextual influence, the subjects were shown cropped photos of the sculptures, forcing them to focus solely on the facial features. An additional 114 individuals were asked to assign the appropriate emotion based on a verbal description of each sculpture. The results from both sets of participants verified the striking resemblance between the facial expressions of the past and those of the present. 

Summarizing their findings, the researchers emphasized that the expressions people manifest are not merely products of contemporary culture but rather deeply ingrained impulses that have persisted over a millennia. They concluded that individuals from ancient civilizations, devoid of exposure to modern cultural influences, conveyed emotions through their facial expressions that are almost identical to their Western counterparts today.

Sculptures have become a powerful tool to learn about and preserve history. For example, an examination of ancient Egyptian sculptures has unlocked intricate details about the mummification process and the cultural customs intertwined with it. While historians often grapple with limited information, these sculptural relics provide tangible records of historical events such as wars, cultural shifts, political upheavals, and even the dull drum of daily life. 

More than a mere art form for entertainment, sculptures serve as crucial artifacts that unlock the mysteries of bygone eras. Together with ancient texts and drawings, they furnish concrete evidence for historians, unraveling the evolutionary trajectory of human expression. Who can say for certain? Perhaps in the future, our own visages will undergo similar scrutiny, not necessarily as sculptures, but as preserved in photographs, films, and the vast trove of social media content.