The so-called “screaming mummy,” known for its contorted facial expression, likely died in excruciating pain, researchers say, lending credence to a theory that has been speculated about since the mummy was first discovered nearly a century ago.
A team from the Metropolitan Museum of Art discovered the mummy in a wooden coffin beneath the tomb of Senmut at Deir el-Bahari, an ancient Theban site, in 1935. The mummified woman was wearing a black wig and gold and silver rings, but what was most intriguing about her was her facial expression, with her mouth wide open and her jaw slightly crooked.
In 2020, Zahi Hawass and Sahar Salim’s analysis of a 3,000-year-old mummy determined that the ancient Egyptian woman died of a heart attack. Significantly, the team concluded that her suffering was immortalized through her embalming, giving her the nickname “the screaming mummy.” In the context of the study, the specimen is known as “Unidentified Woman A.”
Now, The cutting edge of medicine The findings of this study support those findings and refute skepticism about whether the woman really died in such dramatic circumstances.
“In ancient Egypt, people practiced embalming to keep their bodies beautiful after death,” Salim, a radiologist at Cairo University and lead author of the study, explained in an email to Gizmodo, “so they were keen to close the mouths of their dead by tying the jaws to the head to prevent the normal drooping of the jaw after death.”
“The mummified body was in a very good state of preservation and there were traces of expensive embalming chemicals on the surface of the body,” Saleem added. “This rules out the possibility that the mummification process was careless, where the embalmer simply neglected to close the opening.”.”
Instead, Saleem’s team speculates that the woman may have suffered necrophilia, a rare muscle stiffening that occurs in certain parts of the body just before death. The muscles can contract for up to 36 hours. Recent studies have suggested that the woman may have been embalmed before the muscles relaxed, allowing her face to be preserved after death. The condition may have prevented the embalmer from closing her mouth as they normally would, the researchers say.
As Gizmodo reported in 2020, researchers believe the woman may have suffered a heart attack, which may have contributed to her death. Lancet Thirty-four percent of mummies at the time showed signs of cardiovascular disease. For comparison, according to the CDC, one in five deaths in 2022 could be attributed to some form of heart disease.
“This study’s scientific investigation of resins and other materials used in mummification is a valuable contribution, and the authors’ approach is novel and detailed,” Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute and lead author of the global HORUS study, a comprehensive look at heart disease in ancient cultures, said in an email to Gizmodo.
“The authors give a good explanation for why the mouth is open, but there is no direct evidence in this mummy to support their idea or to refute other possibilities,” added Thompson, who was not involved in the study. “But I believe they’re right, and their explanation makes sense.”
Still, Thompson told Gizmodo in 2020, “museum curators and anthropologists can make up a story about a mummy based on very little objective data, and no one can deny it.”
Salim’s team confirmed his previous findings by emphasizing that the embalmer had taken proper care of the deceased and had completed the job at some expense. Analysis of the woman’s skin revealed that she had been embalmed with significant amounts of frankincense and juniper, her natural hair had been treated with henna and juniper, and even her wig had been treated with quartz and crystal. In other words, her gaping mouth was not the result of negligence on the part of the embalmer.
But not everyone agrees. “With death, the body’s muscles relax, and the mouth usually opens passively,” Gregory Thomas, a cardiologist at the University of California, Irvine, and co-leader of the HORUS project, who was not connected to the recent study, told Gizmodo in an email. “To best recreate the appearance of the deceased after death, modern, and possibly ancient, embalmers would physically close the mouth if it was open when they received the deceased. Thus, the most likely cause of CIT8’s scream-like appearance is [screaming] The mummy’s biggest flaw is that its mouth was not closed during the embalming process.”
“Necrophilia is a phenomenon that is still poorly understood as it is rare and only occurs in forensic situations, so further forensic research may be needed,” Saleem added. “Furthermore, studying more mummies with scream-like facial expressions may shed more light on this condition.”
