Famous Egyptian mummy's 'screaming' expression may hint at agonising death, study suggests

Archaeologists use advanced scientific techniques to unravel the mysteries of ancient Egypt

A scan of the famous 'Screaming Woman' mummy, excavated in Egypt in the 1930s. The mummy was the subject of a report conducted by specialists at Cairo University's Kasr Al Ainy Hospital. Photo: FrontiShow more

In 1935, archaeologists from the Metropolitan Museum of New York made a haunting discovery while excavating the tomb of Senmut, the architect and overseer of royal works for Queen Hatshepsut, in Deir Elbahari near Luxor, Egypt.

Beneath Senmut's tomb, they found a wooden coffin holding the mummy of an elderly woman, her mouth agape in what appeared to be an eternal scream.

The mummy, known as the “Screaming Woman”, has captured the imagination of researchers and the public for about a century.

Now, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine sheds light on the life and death of this enigmatic mummy.

Using state-of-the-art techniques, including CAT scans, scanning electron microscopy, and special infrared imaging equipment, Egyptian researchers have “virtually dissected” the Screaming Woman, revealing intriguing details about her final moments and the mummification process used to preserve her remains.

“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,” said Dr Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at Kasr Al Ainy Hospital of Cairo University and lead author of the study.

The researchers estimate that the Screaming Woman was about 48 years old at the time of her death and stood about 5 feet tall. She suffered from mild arthritis of the spine and had lost several teeth before her death, likely due to extraction.

Surprisingly, the mummy's internal organs, including the brain, diaphragm, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, and intestine, were still present., which was unusual for mummies from the New Kingdom period (1550–1069BC), as the classic mummification method involved removing all organs except the heart.

The study also revealed that the Screaming Woman had been embalmed with juniper imported from the Eastern Mediterranean and East Africa, and frankincense, likely from Southern Arabia. Such materials were costly in ancient Egypt.

Her natural hair had been dyed with henna and juniper, and her long wig, made from date palm fibres, was treated with quartz, magnetite, and albite crystals, likely to stiffen the locks and achieve the black colour favoured by ancient Egyptians as a symbol of youth, according to Saleem.

While no obvious cause of death was found, the researchers hypothesise that the mummy's striking facial expression could be the result of a cadaveric spasm, a rare form of muscular stiffening associated with violent deaths under extreme physical conditions and intense emotion.

“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,” Dr Saleem said.

The findings of this study not only provide insight into the life and death of the Screaming Woman but also support the existence of ancient trade networks for embalming materials in ancient Egypt.

Dr Saleem said: “The Screaming Woman is a true 'time capsule' of the way that she died and was mummified.”

The mummy and her coffin have been separated since her discovery, with the Screaming Woman initially kept at the Kasr Al Ainy School of Medicine in Cairo before being moved to the Cairo Egyptian Museum in 1998.

Her coffin and the two scarab rings found with her remain on display at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

As researchers continue to apply cutting-edge technologies to the study of ancient remains, more secrets from Egypt's past will probably be unveiled, providing a deeper understanding of the lives, deaths, and burial practices of its people.