THE chilling mystery of an ancient Egyptian mummy buried with a screaming face has been cracked by scientists.
The mummy, dubbed “The Screaming Woman”, was found in 1935 in Deir Elbahari, Egypt, in the family tomb of a royal architect.
While internal organs are usually removed during mummification, hers were left in place – leaving scientists baffled at first.
It was then thought that careless ancient Egyptians did a poor job – and her mouth was left wide open by mistake.
But a new scientific study has now revealed that the likely reason for her pained expression is because she died screaming in agony.
Sahar Saleem, a researcher from Cairo University, said her scream was a result of cadaveric spasm — a rare form of muscular stiffening caused by violent deaths under extreme stress.
She said: “The mummy’s screaming facial expression in this study could be read as a cadaveric spasm, implying that the woman died screaming from agony or pain.
“This mummified Screaming Woman is a true ‘time capsule’ of the way that she died, revealing some of the secrets of mummifications.”
What caused her such a painful death, however, is unclear.
Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) on the remains, the team found that the body was buried with juniper and frankincense – products of nature found in plants and trees.
These were costly – and were imported from the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern Arabia back then.
This led researchers to believe the woman was buried at great expense.
Dr Saleem said: “Here we show that she was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material.
“This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification.”
Her mummy also wore a wig made of fibres from the date palm, which were treated with then-expensive materials like quartz, magnetite, and albite crystals.
This was probably to stiffen the locks and turn them black, a colour thought to represent youth by ancient Egyptians, Dr Saleem added.
It also suggested that the woman was from a wealthy clan.
The scientist said: “The excavation notes mentioned she was wearing two rings with jasper scarabs set on gold and silver respectively.
“The material used for these amulets and jewellery denote the person’s wealth and socio-economic status.”
ROYAL HISTORY
Despite her wealth, the mummy was not identified by name, but her place of burial offers a clue.
She was mummified in the family tomb of Senmut, a royal architect who was thought to be a lover of a great Pharaoh.
Dr Saleem said: “Senmut was a very powerful stateman at the time of Hatshepsut and the teacher of her daughter, Princess Nefrure.
“The family burial contained Senmut’s mother, Hat Nufer, and his father, Ra Mose.
“Although no name was recorded on the screaming mummy, she was likely a close family member of Senmut to share his parents’ eternal resting place.”
Scientists believe she was roughly 48 years old when she died, on the basis of the joint between her two pelvic bones, which smoothens with age.
Other medical checks including CT scans, electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction analysis found the woman also suffered from mild arthritis of the spine.
Several teeth were missing too – likely lost before death since there were signs of bone resorption, which occurs when a tooth comes out and the socket is left to heal.
The Screaming Woman’s remains are now kept by the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, while her coffin and rings are kept by the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which excavated her tomb in 1935.
Dr Saheem and Dr El-Merghani published their study in the journal Frontiers In Medicine.
