By More than two millennia ago, an unnamed woman died under unknown circumstances. Buried in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian government official, her expertly preserved body would rest until centuries later, when she once again captured the minds and curiosities of the living.
Dubbed the “Screaming Woman” thanks to a jaw locked in a perpetual twisted bellow, the mummy was discovered in 1935 during an archeological expedition led by the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
She was discovered in the tomb of Senmut, an 18th Dynasty architect and overseer of royal works for queen Hatschepsut (1479-1458 BCE), in Deir Elbahari near Luxor, Egypt. Archeologists excavating the tomb discovered remains in addition to Senmut’s, including a separate burial chamber that housed his mother and other unidentified family members.
During the expedition, a wooden coffin, believed to have been buried some 2,500 years ago, was opened to reveal the well-preserved body of an older woman donned in a black wig and sporting two gold and silver scarab rings. While her true name is unknown, scientists quickly came up with the Screaming Woman moniker after getting a look at the haunting expression etched on her face.
Originally, researchers attributed her gaping maw to poor embaling technique – the embalmer could have been in a rush or simply not the most attuned professional and could have forgotten to properly secure her jaw closed before burial.
But, 89 years after her discovery, a fresh examination by Radiologist Sahar Saleem of Cairo University and anthropologist Samia El-Merghani of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has produced new details that may point to a different, more sinister theory.
What we learned about the Screaming Woman
Saleem and El-Merghani used CT scans to ‘virtually dissect’ the mummy and published their findings in the Aug. 1 edition of the journal “Frontiers in Medicine.”
In the paper, Saleem notes that the original assumptions about the Screaming Woman’s preservation and burial being a less than professional affair were likely wrong – in fact, evidence discovered on and in her body pointed to the opposite.
Part of the original sloppy embalming belief was also attributed to the fact that all of her organs, including her brain, diaphragm, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, and intestine, were still intact inside her body, an uncommon (but not unheard of) practice at the time.
Using advanced techniques like scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and x-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), however, Saleem and El-Merghani determined that the woman’s body was treated with embalming agents juniper and frankincense, materials that would have had to be imported from Africa and Arabia for a steep price.
The natural hair beneath her wig had also been dyed with juniper and henna, while the woven date palm fiber wig itself had been treated with quartz, magnetite, and albite crystals and then braided. The use of these expensive materials and the obvious care put into the preparation of her skin and hair indicate that her burial was less sloppy and more something of a spectacle.
“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,” Saleem said in a press release.
The woman, her organs and even her teeth were remarkably well preserved, allowing researchers to determine that she was about 48 years old and roughly 1.54 meters, or around 5 feet, tall when she died. Bone spurs found on the vertebrae indicated she likely suffered from spinal arthritis.
There was also evidence of the early practice of dentistry in her mouth, as several of her teeth were found to be missing but showed evidence of bone resorption, a healing process that occurs after teeth fall or are pulled out. Some of her other remaining teeth were broken or showed signs of decay.
“Teeth lost during life may have been extracted. Dentistry had originated in ancient Egypt, with Hesy Re the first recorded physician and dentist in the world,” said Saleem.
Did the Screaming Woman die screaming?
While scientists were able to discern a lot in this most recent review of the Screaming Woman, no obvious cause of death was observed. However, the study’s authors believe they may have an alternative explanation for her haunting expression besides shoddy craftsmanship.
“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,” hypothesized Saleem.
Cadaveric spasm is not a commonly observed phenomenon and some scientists have argued that it either doesn’t exist at all or is extremely rare. In theory, it happens in cases of sudden death after great and prolonged muscular tension, which is why it has historically been associated with “violent deaths under extreme physical conditions and intense emotion.”
If a person dies under circumstances of prolonged muscular tension, their muscles may essentially lock in place and fail to relax. The muscles can stay “locked” into the process of rigor mortis and beyond and it is said this stiffening is more extreme and difficult to diffuse than traditional rigor mortis.
While it is a controversial explanation, Saleem said it could explain the Screaming Woman’s expression if she was mummified while the muscles of her body were still contracting before decomposition began to set in.
“It is also possible that the contracted muscles must have prevented embalmers from closing the mouth,” the paper said.
Unfortunately, we may never truly know how or why the Screaming Woman died and if her ever-lasting shriek was the result of a horrifically painful death or simply a posthumous slip. Still said, Saleem, her immaculately preserved body “is a true ‘time capsule’ of the way that she died and was mummified.”
