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My public response and scientific
rebuttal to Dr. Zahi Hawass and
Prof. Dr. Sahar Saleem (article in Al
Ahram newspaper)
Yesterday evening, October 1st in Brazil and October 2nd in Egypt, I had access to the
article entitled “Pictures of Amenhotep I in the balance of science”1by reporter Rania
Saber Rafaee. The content of the article, related to the words of Dr. Hawass and Prof.
Dr. Saleem about the facial approximation that I will perform on Amenhotep I, was so
full of incoherent arguments that it forced me to compose this response text. In an
objective manner, I will quote the original text translated into English by Google,
followed by the refutation or commentary.
For his part, Dr. Zahi Hawass, the archaeologist and Egyptologist, categorically rejected
any unscientific attempts to infer the features of the ancient Egyptian kings, as the
Brazilian graphic designer did, and said that he does not rule out that these attempts
are suspicious. He said that this man has no right under any circumstances to use the
studies that he and Dr. Sahar Selim, an expert in Egyptian mummies, conducted to
create completely unscientific images.
I would like to know what Dr. Hawass means by unscientific and suspicious, since I
have already published a number of articles in scientific journals2, in addition to
having worked on cases of crime victims with subsequent recognition, including
publication (Baldasso et al., 2020)3. In addition, Dr. Hawass seems to be unaware of
the license under which the base article was written, which I will address later, along
with the academic issue.
Hawass said that he does not rule out that this Brazilian designer was motivated by
Afrocentric groups, to show the owners of the Egyptian civilization as having black skin.
He pointed out that when he raised this issue in the United States of America,
demonstrations were held against him in several American cities, organized by
Afrocentric advocates who falsify the origins of the Egyptian civilization. He stressed
that he will continue to stand against these attempts and that he will organize a
campaign to respond to them in the international press and all international forums.
3Baldasso, R. P., Moraes, C., Gallardo, E., Stumvoll, M. B., Crespo, K. C., Strapasson, R. A. P., & de
Oliveira, R. N. (2020). 3D forensic facial approximation: Implementation protocol in a forensic
activity. In Journal of Forensic Sciences (Vol. 66, Issue 1, pp. 383–388). Wiley.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.14587
2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9479-0028
1
https://gate.ahram.org.eg/daily/News/204997/34/957190/%D8%B7%D8%A8-%D9%88%D8%B9%
D9%84%D9%88%D9%85/%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%86%D8%AD%D8
%AA%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%89-%D9%85%D9%8
A%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%85.aspx
I know where Dr. Hawass got this idea from, which is incompatible with the facts. It
was because of a facial approximation I made of Nazlet Khater, a “35,000-year-old
Egyptian.” What he seems to ignore, is that I have already had the trouble of
responding to him and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism about this4, the experts who
analyzed the skeleton in the 1980s and published their analyses indicated that this
was an individual with black African ancestry. Apparently, Dr. Hawass did not
consider the response document. Regarding the insinuation that I was motivated by
Afrocentric groups, it makes no sense at all, since I have been repeatedly criticized by
them and have even written two response documents to a YouTube channel that fit
the context5 6. See below for more refutation elements.
Screenshot with video thumbnails, The Kings Monologue channel.
The Kings Monologue channel7, which openly supports an Ancient Egyptian setting
with black African ancestry, created, believe it or not, 6 consecutive live streams
criticizing my facial approximation work, totaling almost 15 hours of material. That
alone would refute Dr. Hawass, but it doesn't stop there...
7https://www.youtube.com/@kingmono
6
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381848038_Reply_to_Mr_Andrew_A_King_regarding
_his_article_on_facial_approximation_Amenhotep_III
5
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381010993_My_answers_to_The_Kings_Monologue_o
n_Amenhotep_III's_facial_approximation
4
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BaO7wW0lC4RBqVxOWF4eLPyTu2tucQy6KthghgxB5PA/
Screenshots of “Afrocentrist” posts suggesting I made a whitewashed approximation.
I received numerous criticisms on various social media about an alleged whitewashed
when approaching the face of Amenhotep III.
Referring back to Dr. Sahar Saleem, who is one of the most important international
experts in the field of radiology and CT scans of mummies, she confirmed that the
Brazilian designer’s drawing is nothing more than an artistic work inspired by his
imagination and not based on what she published in scientific research. This work has
not been published in any scientific journal, but rather is purely media news. In addition,
this drawing referred to is the result of serious flaws in the methodology, and a
worrying lack of accuracy that makes it scientifically unacceptable, and does not
represent the true face of King Amenhotep I.
Here, Prof. Dr. Saleem highlights the lack of knowledge of the person she is criticizing,
as a simple search on Google or Google Scholar8, ResearchGate9or similar sites is
enough to confirm that I have already published several articles, not only on forensic
9https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cicero-Moraes
8https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=u33uvHUAAAAJ&hl=pt-BR
facial approximation, but also on surgical planning and other subjects related to
anatomy. Furthermore, I have received two doctorates honoris causa titles for my
contributions to science and also, as will be discussed later, I am a guest reviewer for
several academic journals. In addition, the methodology I use is detailed in the
articles, explaining how to perform some of the steps with video lessons with free and
open-source software. Regarding the work related to Amenhotep I not having been
published in any journal, it will be in the future, like others in which we presented the
face10 before and published later (Moraes et al., 2024)11.
The Brazilian artist's experiments depend on using a few pictures of the mummy
published on the Internet, which of course do not provide enough information to create
three-dimensional images. This resulted in inaccurate measurements on which the
designer based his vision of the king's appearance. He even superimposed them on a CT
scan of a living person's head. The result of such a flawed methodology was to give a
false imaginary image of the shape and features of King Amenhotep I's face, which is
completely different from his real face as shown by the CT scan. This is what also
happened in previous experiments by this designer with his attempts to produce
inaccurate images of the faces of kings from ancient Egyptian civilization such as
Seqenenre and Ramses II.
As I mentioned above, I have published several articles related to anatomy, some of
them on how to supplement missing skull structures or project expected regions to
certain locations. These approaches are used not only for forensic facial
approximation, but in the observation of surgical cases for digital pre- and
post-surgical assessment. Prof. Dr. Saleem appears not to have read any articles on
the anatomical deformation technique that we use to convert one skull into another,
or one face into another, a technique that is complemented by anatomical projections
(Abdullah et al., 2022)12. Regarding the work carried out with Seqenenre13 and
Ramesses II14, it again seems that Prof. Dr. Saleem did not read preliminary reports
we published on the work, where we even offered video lessons on how to reproduce
a significant part of the techniques, all duly referenced by other articles.
She added that everyone has the right to view and circulate the CT scan images of the
royal mummies that we have published in scientific journals, but these images cannot be
used in such projects and to build an imaginary and scientifically inaccurate image in an
attempt to give it a scientific character, as this is completely unacceptable.
14 https://ortogonline.com/doc/pt_br/OrtogOnLineMag/9/Ramesses.html
13 https://ortogonline.com/doc/pt_br/OrtogOnLineMag/9/Seqenenre.html
12 Abdullah, J. Y., Moraes, C., Saidin, M., Rajion, Z. A., Hadi, H., Shahidan, S., & Abdullah, J. M.
(2022). Forensic Facial Approximation of 5000-Year-Old Female Skull from Shell Midden in
Guar Kepah, Malaysia. In Applied Sciences (Vol. 12, Issue 15, p. 7871). MDPI AG.
https://doi.org/10.3390/app12157871
11 Moraes, C., Varotto, E., Habicht, M. E., Sineo, L., & Galassi, F. M. (2024). Facial approximation
of a skull with signs of tertiary syphilis found in the Skriðuklaustur monastery (Iceland,
15th-16th century AD). In Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (Vol. 34, p.
e00362). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2024.e00362
10 https://www.livescience.com/syphilis-facial-reconstruction-iceland
Here I will address the issue of the license of the study entitled “Digital Unwrapping of
the Mummy of King Amenhotep I (1525–1504 BC) Using CT” (Saleem & Hawass,
2021)15, which in this case was Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which
allows the material to be used in other media, including with derivation, as long as
the source is cited. This is exactly what we did about the facial approximation of
Amenhotep I, we cited the source in journalistic articles with our direct participation.
Screenshot from Wikimedia Commons - repository of images under CC license.
Furthermore, the frontal and lateral images of Amenhotep I's skull are available on
Wikimedia Commons16, which makes the situation even more embarrassing,
suggesting that the authors are unaware of how this license works. Furthermore, in
all possible articles, we take care not to use the image, even if it is under a free
license, as we encourage access to the original articles.
Notice available at the beginning of the article about facial approximation of the CIT8 mummy.
This approach can be seen at the beginning of the article on the facial approximation
of the Screaming Mummy, where a notice panel makes it clear that the work in
question is independent, in addition to encouraging the reader to access the original
article17.
17 https://ortogonline.com/doc/pt_br/OrtogOnLineMag/10/CIT8.html
16 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fmed-08-778498-g003.jpg
15 Saleem, S. N., & Hawass, Z. (2021). Digital Unwrapping of the Mummy of King Amenhotep I
(1525–1504 BC) Using CT. In Frontiers in Medicine (Vol. 8). Frontiers Media SA.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.778498
The professor of diagnostic radiology at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University
warned that the spread of such false images that instill in the public unrealistic features
of the ancient Egyptians while they are closer in appearance to us, their descendants.
Dr. Sahar explains that the correct perception and scientific reconstruction of the faces
of the ancient Egyptians, especially the symbols and kings, is of great importance to
Egyptians and the world as it enables us to revive their history and communicate with
the ancient Egyptian civilization. What Egyptian researchers have reached regarding
the appearance of King Amenhotep I is completely different from what the Brazilian
graphic designer has promoted.
Here, Prof. Dr. Saleem, without knowing it, places herself in an unfavorable situation
in the argumentative context, since one of the bases that I have used as references for,
for example, the characterization, is precisely an article in which she is a co-author
(Wilkinson et al., 2023)18.
Comparison of samples collected in the same regions of forensic facial approximations.
When comparing core samples in the same regions of the weekly digital
approximations, it is clear that there is an evident compatibility between them.
Regarding the experience of restoring the faces of mummies that she and a number of
Egyptian researchers had undergone before, Dr. Sahar Selim says that through her
work as a member of the scientific project to study royal mummies and study them with
CT scans of more than 40 royal mummies with the project head, Dr. Zahi Hawass, she
participated in studies to build a visualization of the faces of ancient Egyptian kings
using CT scans and in a scientific manner. In 2005, Dr. Zahi Hawass conducted three
different experiments to reconstruct the face of King Tutankhamun, independently
assisting an Egyptian team and others from France and America. In 2022, Dr. Sahar
Selim cooperated with a Canadian team consisting of a paleoanthropologist and a
sculptor specializing in making a three-dimensional model of the head and face of King
Tutankhamun using 3D printing technology and artificial intelligence. A research team
from the University of Liverpool was also involved in reconstructing the face of King
18 Wilkinson, C. M., Saleem, S. N., Liu, C. Y. J., & Roughley, M. (2023). Revealing the face of
Ramesses II through computed tomography, digital 3D facial reconstruction and
computer-generated Imagery. In Journal of Archaeological Science (Vol. 160, p. 105884).
Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105884
Ramses II, and the scientific research was published in the Journal of Archaeological
Science in 2023. A new scientific study published by Dr. Sahar shows in animation how
the face of the most famous pharaoh, Ramses II, changed from youth to old age. Salim
considers this type of research project to be one of the most scientifically accurate, as it
relies on accurate information from ethnology and studies of the facial measurements of
ancient Egyptians. Forensic specialists and sculptors are also consulted, so that the
image of the real face comes out in the most accurate form possible.
Here again, the authors contradict themselves, as they criticized my lack of
publications on Amenhotep I and cite previous works related to facial reconstructions
involving Tutankhamun. However, none of these works were published in the form
of a scientific article, at least I could not find them in any journal article database.
What we have, in the case of the 2005 project, is a press release19, and in the case of
the 2022 project, what we have at our disposal are, just look, journalistic articles and a
documentary on the PBS network20. Interestingly, we published a paper in a journal,
in open access format, entitled “Pharaoh Tutankhamun: a novel 3D digital facial
approximation” (Moraes et al., 2023)21.
Another very curious situation is that the new study cited by Prof. Dr. Saleem, in
which an animation of the face of Ramses II is presented, is an article entitled “Using
a morph-based animation to visualise the face of Pharaoh Ramesses II ageing from
middle to old age” (Roughley et al., 2024)22 of which, coincidentally, I was one of the
reviewers and was able, with honor, to contribute with improvements in the final
text and for future works with the same approach.
Three quotes of my authorship (Moraes, C.) or co-authorship cited in the article by Roughley et al., (2024),
which has Prof. Dr. Saleem as a co-author.
22 Roughley, M., Liu, C. Y. J., Wilkinson, C. M., & Saleem, S. N. (2024). Using a morph-based
animation to visualise the face of Pharaoh Ramesses II ageing from middle to old age. In
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (Vol. 35, p. e00377). Elsevier BV.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2024.e00377
21 Moraes, C., Habicht, M. E., Galassi, F. M., Varotto, E., & Beaini, T. (2023). Pharaoh
Tutankhamun: a novel 3D digital facial approximation. In Italian Journal of Anatomy and
Embryology (Vol. 127, Issue 1, pp. 13–22). Firenze University Press.
https://doi.org/10.36253/ijae-14514
20 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/face-tutankhamun-seen-first-time-28684112
19 https://www.guardians.net/hawass/Press_Release_05-05_Tut_Reconstruction.htm
I suppose Prof. Dr. Saleem didn't notice, but in the article in question she cited articles
I authored and co-authored three times on that occasion. Furthermore, from the
content of the text:
Encounters with these reconstructions in museums, educational settings, and in the
media give the public a chance to connect with history on a more personal level; seeing
a reconstructed face in a museum exhibition or in a historical television documentary
helps bridge the gap between the past and present, making historical figures more
relatable, credible, and emotionally impactful to the general public. The depictions
also invite the public into conversations surrounding the depiction of ancient
people; changing public perception about ancient individuals and contribute to
cultural enrichment.
The analysis of such work is done in a positive way, that is, in addition to
demonstrating its importance for the field, it also shows that I do follow scientific
concepts, such as formal publications, to the point of being cited in a work that she
co-authored.
My revision history is automatically sent to ORCID, based on editors email confirmation.
And I mentioned this to the authors (Saleem and Hawass), including informing Prof.
Dr. Saleem of my ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9479-0028), so that she could
attest not only to the publications in journals with a good impact factor, but also to the
fact that I am a guest reviewer for the following publishers: Springer Nature, PLOS,
LWW and Elsevier.
To conclude this section, Prof. Dr. Saleem cites guest sculptors who specialize in
forensic art. In this case, Dr. Wilkinson is a widely known expert, whose book and
several publications I have had the pleasure of reading, and I have had the honor of
being cited in an article she co-authored. The article is entitled “Assessment of
accuracy and recognition of three-dimensional computerized forensic craniofacial
reconstruction” (Miranda et al., 2018)23, published in 2018 and which cites a paper I
23 Miranda, G. E., Wilkinson, C., Roughley, M., Beaini, T. L., & Melani, R. F. H. (2018).
Assessment of accuracy and recognition of three-dimensional computerized forensic
craniofacial reconstruction. In D. Hoon Shin (Ed.), PLOS ONE (Vol. 13, Issue 5, p. e0196770).
Public Library of Science (PLoS). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196770
wrote in 2014 (Moraes et al., 2014)24. I think it is quite clear that I did not start this
today, nor am I unfamiliar with academic circles.
I think that is enough for now. However, I want to make it clear that I have not taken
anything personally (yet) and that I intend to continue to appreciate the material
published by Dr. Hawass and Prof. Dr. Saleem, which is indeed very important and
reveals a valuable amount of information to us. I would just like to see scientists who
are so beloved by the public be more careful when they talk about the work of others,
especially when such words are not compatible with the facts.
I'll end it here, wishing everyone health and inspiration.
Cicero Moraes
Sinop (Brazil), October 2, 2024.
24 Moraes, C. A. da C., Dias, P. E. M., & Melani, R. F. H. (2014). Demonstration of protocol for
computer-aided forensic facial reconstruction with free software and photogrammetry. In
Journal of Research in Dentistry (Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. 77). Anima Educação.
https://doi.org/10.19177/jrd.v2e1201477-90
