THE German police were stumped. In January 2003 they discovered a skull in a forest near Celle, north of Hannover. They could tell that its owner was a man and that he had been about 56 when he died. He still had most of his teeth, had undergone extensive dental work, and had broken his nose long enough before his death for it to have healed. DNA samples indicated that he had dark hair and a southern European complexion. Yet two years later, they still had no idea who the man was.
As luck would have it, experts in the…
