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The mummy of a woman with a screaming facial expression (below) has attracted a great deal of press attention recently, with headlines suggesting she died in agony. However, in spite of a recent examination using advanced scanning techniques, the cause of her death is unknown, as is the reason why her mouth is locked wide open.
Discovered in 1935 near the Tomb of Senenmut at Deir el-Bahri, the body is that of a woman, about 48 years old. The mummy was well preserved, having been embalmed with imported juniper and frankincense. She wore a wig made of date-palm fibres treated with minerals to blacken and stiffen it, while, underneath, her natural hair had been dyed with henna and juniper. Surprisingly, there was no embalming incision and the organs were still inside the body, which is unusual for New Kingdom burials (where typically all organs except the heart were removed). Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain the ‘scream’, including ‘cadaveric spasm’ – a rare form of muscular stiffening that occurs at the moment of death, usually associated with violent deaths – and various other factors including the rate of desiccation, tightness of the wrappings, or the decomposition process.
Text: Sarah Griffiths / Image: Sahar N Saleem & Samia El-Merghani (2024) Front.Med. 11 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2024.1406225
