Mystery of mummified 'Screaming Woman' solved after 3,000 years, claims expert
The mystery behind why a mummified Egyptian woman has been silently ‘screaming’ for 3,000 years could finally have been solved.
The mummified remains of the unidentified woman were first unearthed back in 1935 after archaeologists excavated the tomb of an architect known as Senmut in Deir Elbahari near Luxor.
Beneath Senmut’s tomb, archaeologists discovered another burial chamber which contained his mother’s remains as well as other unidentified relatives.
The team also found a wooden coffin that held the remains of an elderly woman wearing a black wig and gold and silver rings on her fingers.
Advert
But what stood out most to the archaeologists who made the discovery was the expression on her mummified face, with her mouth wide open as if she was screaming.
Adding further mystery to her discovery, the woman’s internal organs had never been removed, which is unusual when it comes to mummification.
Her expression earned her the very apt nickname the ‘Screaming Woman’ and for decades since her discovery, very little has been known about her.
However, thousands of years after the Screaming Woman was laid to rest, researchers from Egypt have used cutting-edge scientific techniques to help shed some light on the mystery.
New research, published in Frontiers in Medicine, saw Dr Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at Kasr Al Ainy Hospital of Cairo University, use CT scans to ‘virtually dissect’ the mummy and gain more information about her life and death.
It had been thought that her ‘screaming’ expression was down to a botched mummification process, but Dr Saleem no longer believes this is the case.
"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," Dr Saleem said in a statement.
No cause of death for the mystery woman was identified, but following the X-rays and CT scans, the researchers were able to determine that she was around 5ft tall and 48-years-old when she died, she also likely suffered from ‘mild arthritis of the spine’.
She had also lost some teeth prior to her death.
“Teeth lost during life may have been extracted,” said Dr Saleem.
“Dentistry had originated in ancient Egypt, with Hesy Re the first recorded physician and dentist in the world.”
As for that ‘screaming’ expression, experts now believe that her pained expression could have been caused by a genuine moment of suffering at her time of death, known as a ‘cadaveric spasm’.
“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,” Dr Saleem suggested.
"Embalmers likely mummified the contracted body of the woman before it decomposed or relaxed, thus preserving her opened mouth position at death."
The researchers also noted that the woman’s seized facial muscles may have prevented those who were embalming her after her death from shutting her mouth closed, meaning it remained that way for thousands of years.
Dr Saleem added: “The Screaming Woman is a true ‘time capsule’ of the way that she died and was mummified.”
Topics: World News, History, Ancient Egypt, Science
Claire Reid