This Egyptian Mummy’s Mouth Is Locked Open Like She’s Permanently Screaming In Horror, And Some Mysteries About Her Were Just Uncovered
During an expedition to Egypt in 1935, archaeologists from the Metropolitan Museum of New York unearthed a mummified woman from Deir el-Bahari, a tomb complex located in the Thebian necropolis.
The mummy was buried in a wooden coffin, wearing a black wig and two rings made of jasper. Her mouth was locked open as if she was permanently screaming in horror. She has been dubbed the “Screaming Woman.”
When the mummy was first found, experts theorized that she may have been mummified poorly, which could explain why she died with such a horrifying expression on her face.
Others speculated that the embalmers may have simply neglected to close her mouth before her burial about 2,500 years ago.
Recent scans have revealed that most of her internal organs are still present, adding to the mystery of it all.
Researchers from Cairo University and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt conducted an investigation into the case, and they believe the woman died in agony—just not from poor mummification.
“Here, we show that she was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material,” Sahar Saleem, a study author and a radiologist professor at Cairo University’s Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, said.
“This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification.”
In the study, Saleem took CT scans of the Screaming Woman’s remains. She also used several other non-invasive techniques to analyze the materials used in the embalming process.
Dave – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The mummy showed no signs of embalming incisions, and its internal organs, including the liver, brain, and lungs, were intact.
The woman lived during the New Kingdom (1550 to 1069 B.C.E.), a period in which it was common to remove the internal organs of the deceased and preserve them in canopic jars.
Usually, only the heart was left in the body. The practice was not applied to the Screaming Woman. Yet, she was still remarkably well-preserved. According to Saleem, this could reflect another style of mummification.
It is estimated that the Screaming Woman was about five feet tall and was around 48-years-old when she died.
The cause of her death was unclear, but bone spurs on the vertebrae of her spine were detected, indicating that she suffered from mild arthritis. She was also missing a few teeth, which may have been extracted while she was alive.
Her wig was made from date palm fibers. It was then treated with albite, quartz, and magnetite crystals to stiffen the locks and maintain the black color.
A chemical analysis of her skin showed that she was embalmed with frankincense and the oil of juniper berries, expensive materials that would have been imported from places like East Africa, Southern Arabia, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Saleem suggested that the mummy’s facial expression was caused by a cadaveric spasm, a rare form of muscle stiffening that occurs after death and is associated with extreme physical or emotional stress.
After the Screaming Woman was discovered in 1935, she was taken to the Kasr Al Ainy School of Medicine in Cairo.
She was transferred to the Cairo Egyptian Museum in 1998. Her wooden coffin and rings have been on display in the Metropolitan Museum of New York since 1935.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:News