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With her mouth open, locked for all eternity in what appears to be a scream, an ancient Egyptian woman captured the imagination of archaeologists who discovered her mummified remains in 1935 in a tomb near Luxor.
Still fascinated by the “screaming woman” who died some 3,500 years ago, a different team of scientists recently used CT scans to reveal details about the mummy’s morphology, health conditions and preservation and employed infrared imaging and other advanced techniques to “virtually dissect” the mummy. remains and understand what may have caused his striking facial expression.
His discoveries, published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, revealed that the woman was 48 years old when she died, based on analysis of a pelvic joint that changes with age. Some aspects of the process used to mummify her stood out.
His body was embalmed with incense and juniper resin, luxurious and expensive substances that would have been traded from far away, study author Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at Cairo University’s Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, said in a statement.
Saleem also found no incisions on the body, which was consistent with the assessment made during the original discovery that the brain, diaphragm, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys and intestines were still present.
The failure to remove internal organs, the study noted, was unusual because the classic mummification method of that period included the removal of all such organs except the heart.
Researchers found that the anonymous woman was 1.54 meters, or just over 1.5 meters, tall and suffered from mild arthritis in her spine, with scans revealing bone spurs on some vertebrae that make up the spinal column. Several teeth, likely lost before death, were also missing from the woman’s jaw.
However, the study was unable to determine the exact cause of death.
“Here we show that she was embalmed with expensive imported embalming material,” Saleem said in a press release.
“This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that failure to remove its internal organs implied poor mummification.”
Only a few ancient Egyptian mummies have been found with their mouths open, the study noted, with embalmers typically wrapping the jaw and skull to keep the deceased’s mouth closed.
What caused the woman’s chilling expression is unclear from the study results, although the researchers put forward a dire hypothesis.
What mummification techniques reveal
Saleem said the well-preserved nature of the mummy, the rarity and cost of the embalming material, along with other burial techniques such as the use of a wig made from date palm and rings placed on the body, seemed to rule out an oversight. mummification process in which embalmers neglected to close his mouth.
The mummy’s “screaming facial expression” can be read as a cadaveric spasm, a rare form of muscle stiffening associated with violent deaths, implying that the woman died screaming in agony or pain, according to the study.
It is possible, the study authors suggested, that she was mummified 18 to 36 hours after death, before her body relaxed or decomposed, thus preserving her open-mouthed position at the time of death.
However, a mummy’s facial expression does not necessarily indicate how the person felt at the time of death, the study noted.
Several other factors, including the decomposition process, the rate of desiccation or drying, and the compressive strength of the wrappings, can affect a mummy’s facial expression.
“Burial procedures or post-mortem alterations may have contributed to the phenomenon of screaming-looking mummies,” the authors noted in the study.
“The cause, true story or circumstances of this woman’s death are unknown, therefore the cause of her glaring facial appearance cannot be established with certainty,” Saleem said in an email.
Open-mouthed mummies
The “screaming woman” was buried under the tomb of Senmut, a temple architect for the Egyptian queen Hatschepsut (1479-1458 BC) who held important positions during her reign. The woman is thought to be related to Senmut, according to the study.
The discovery of his remains occurred during an expedition led by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and her coffin is on display there today. His mummified body is kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Saleem said he had previously studied two other open-mouthed mummies from ancient Egypt.
One of them, a mummy thought to be the remains of a prince known as Pentawerehad his throat slit for his role in his father’s murder, Ramses III (1185-1153 BC). His body was barely embalmed, indicating a lack of care in the mummification process, Saleem said in the press release.
The second mummy was a woman known as Princess Meritamunwho died of a heart attack, and Saleem’s analysis suggested that his wide mouth was due to a post-mortem contraction or movement of his jaw.
Randall Thompson, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine who has studied ancient mummies using CT scans to learn about the origins of cardiovascular disease, called the study useful and detailed. He said the authors’ preferred explanation for the mummy’s open mouth “made sense.”
“Their research helps us understand what substances were available in ancient times and how our ancestors used them,” said Thompson, who was not involved in the study.
“More broadly, we can learn a lot about health and disease from studying ancient mummies,” he added.
“For example, we learned that heart disease is not new, as many people used to believe. He is literally older than Moses.”
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