Brazilian reconstruction of Nazlet Khater human ‘artistic imagination’: Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities

CAIRO - 16 April 2023: The Brazilian researchers who “reconstructed” the face of the Nazlet Khater human did not follow a scientific method or submit a request to receive photographs of his remains or measurements, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement.

The early human, some 35,000 years old, lies in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, Cairo. 

They also “did not indicate they had obtained the anatomical measurements from any other party, which does not give any credibility to the research results,” the ministry said Thursday.

“The researchers based their research on the pure artistic vision of the Nazlat Khater skeleton using graphic programs,” the ministry added, emphasizing that this does not follow standards of scientific research.

The remains of Nazlet Khater was found in 1980 near the village of Nazlet Khater in Sohag Governorate, Upper Egypt. It is a skeleton of a young man in the prime of his life dating back to the Upper Paleolithic era.

The skeleton was found buried with one of its stone tools. It is the second oldest human fossils found in Egypt; the remains of a child who lived some 55,000 years ago were found at Taramsa Hill in arena, Upper Egypt.

Egypt is an important excavation site as it is believed that it was where modern humans immigrated from Africa to the rest of the world.