Researchers found a wooden coffin containing the mummy of an elderly woman near Luxor in southern Egypt, in 1935. She wore a black wig and two beetle-shaped (scarab) earrings made of silver and gold. What intrigued archaeologists was the mummy’s expression: her mouth was wide open, as if she were screaming in terror. They nicknamed her “the Screaming Woman.”
In a new study published on Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, about 3,500 years after the woman’s burial, two researchers from Egypt used the latest scientific techniques to examine the mummy of the Screaming Woman and learn about her life and death.
It was long believed that the woman’s mummification was poor, which might explain her horrific facial expression, as the embalmers failed to close her mouth before burial. However, the new study conducted by researchers Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University, and archaeological researcher Samia El-Mirghani, offers a different perspective. They believe the woman may have died during severe torture.
Saleem explains that the mummy was found in the tomb of the family of Senenmut (a significant statesman and architect during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut) by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s expedition in New York at Deir el-Bahari in Luxor in 1935. The mummified woman wore a long black wig, and her facial expression was that of a wide-open mouth as if screaming, hence the name “the Screaming Woman Mummy.”
CT scans showed that the brain and all the internal organs were still inside the mummy’s body, and there was no embalming incision in the abdomen, unlike the standard mummification style in the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt. Analysis of the mummy’s samples revealed the presence of expensive imported embalming materials with insect-repelling properties on the mummy’s surface (such as juniper resin and frankincense). The CT scans and examinations demonstrated the method of making the wig from palm fibres treated with juniper wood and coated with mineral crystals to give the wig a shine and black colour.
The professor of radiology adds that the examination revealed that the good preservation state of the mummy is due to the use of embalming materials on the body’s surface, which refutes the prevailing belief that not removing the internal organs indicates poor mummification. This study supports the existence of an ancient trade in embalming materials in Egypt. “The good mummification rules out negligence by the embalmers in closing the mouth, which opened naturally after death, opening the door to other interpretations of the wide-open mouth. The facial expression of the mummy in this study may indicate cadaveric spasm, suggesting the woman died screaming in pain.”
Cadaveric spasm, or postmortem spasm, is a type of rigidity that reflects the final action before death, occurring after extreme physical or emotional distress, leading to muscle stiffness immediately upon death and inability to relax. In the case of the Screaming Woman, the embalmers mummified the body before it decayed or relaxed, and it is also likely that the contracted muscles prevented the embalmers from closing the mouth.
In the new study, Saleem used an advanced radiological method (computed tomography) and advanced software for image reconstruction to virtually dissect the mummy, estimate her age, identify diseases and preservation status, and search for a possible cause of death. The authors also used scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify various materials related to the mummified body.
The work on this study took nearly three years, and the researcher emphasizes that mummification in ancient Egypt still holds many surprises. “We continue to learn about it and review our previous beliefs based on facts obtained through scientific methods used to solve this mystery.”
