The “Screaming Woman” mummy, discovered in Luxor, Egypt, mesmerized spectators for almost a century with her lips hanging open. More horrific details are suggested by recent information gathered by Egyptian scholars.
The woman may have “died screaming from agony or pain,” according to reports released on Friday by anthropologist Samia El-Merghan and radiologists Dr. Sahar Saleem of Cairo University. Other methods, including CT scans, were used to find the evidence. The research was released in the Frontiers in Medicine journal on Friday.
The researchers added that the woman’s facial expression might have been caused by cadaveric spasm, which occurs during “severe physical or emotional activity.”
Scientists now have an explanation for the “Screaming Woman” mummy after using CT scans to perform a “virtual dissection.” It turns out she may have died in agony and experienced a rare form of muscular stiffening, called a cadaveric spasm, that occurs at the moment of death.
The examination indicated that the woman was about 48 years old when she died, had lived with mild arthritis of the spine and had lost some teeth, said Cairo University radiology professor Sahar Saleem, who led the study published on Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, opens new tab.
Her body was well-preserved, being embalmed roughly 3,500 years ago during ancient Egypt’s glittering New Kingdom period using costly imported ingredients such as juniper oil and frankincense resin, Saleem added.
The findings were not definitive and the study emphasized that a mummy’s appearance could be affected by a range of factors, from the burial procedures to post-mortem alterations.
But it proved more plausible than the theory that embalmers simply neglected to properly wrap her mouth closed — which likely explained other ancient Egyptian mummies with open mouths.
But the researchers did not find evidence to suggest that the woman had a poor mummification process.
“The funerary techniques the embalmers employed on the corpse of mummy CIT8, including the use of a wig, rings, pricey imported embalming materials, and placing the mummy in a wooden coffin, [indicated] good mummification quality,” they wrote.
The mummy’s cause of death remains unknown. The “Screaming Woman” was discovered between 1935 and 1936 near the tomb of Senmut in Luxor and later stored at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. She was believed to be his relative, according to the study.
Senmut was an architect during the reign of ancient Egypt’s most powerful female leader, Queen Hatshepsut. Senmut’s final years also remain a mystery.
Get the Latest News Updates and Stay Informed with FELA NEWS!
