A mummy found with its mouth open in Egypt in 1935 died screaming, according to recent investigations. Archaeologists found the mummified remains of a woman with her mouth open in a scream-like manner in the 1930s, and recent discoveries indicate that she was buried with her organs intact, signifying that the embalming process did not necessarily preclude the presence of bodily organs, and the open mouth was the result of a scream during her final moments.
Cairo University and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities conducted a joint probe into the figure known as the “Screaming Woman” and concluded she had been mummified around 3,500 years ago with “costly, imported embalming material.” Sahar Saleem of Cairo University’s Kasr Al Ainy Hospital said, “The mummy’s well-preserved appearance contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification.”
During the study, Saleem conducted CT scans of the body, which allowed her to study her condition at the time of death and the state of the body’s preservation.
Examinations indicated that the woman was in her late 40s when she died and that she had lived with arthritis of the spine and had lost several teeth during her lifetime. Scientists have now concluded that the “Screaming Woman” probably died in excruciating agony, and this caused her facial expression, which would endure for millennia.
Additionally, researchers estimate that she suffered from a condition known as cadervic spasm at the moment of her death. This causes muscles to freeze, solidifying the person’s body in their pose at the moment of death. Cadervic spasms are usually associated with violent deaths that occur under extreme emotional circumstances.
When initially discovered, the “Screaming Woman” was enclosed inside a wooden coffin with her legs and arms folded. She wore a black wig made from date palm fibers and two gold rings on the third finger of her left hand. Analysis showed that her hair had been dyed with henna and juniper and that she was embalmed with juniper and frankincense. Her body was finally laid to rest among other famous Egyptian mummies at the Kasr Al Ainy School of Medicine in Cairo.
