SCIENTISTS may have finally unravelled the mystery behind the death of an Egyptian mummy after 3,000 years.
The female corpse known as the “screaming woman” was initially thought to have been poorly mummified.
Ever since 1935, when the “screaming mummy” was uncovered by archaeologists, many have hoped to understand why this woman looks so terrified.
The unidentified woman, buried alongside royal architects and associates of the pharaoh Hatsheput, appears to have her face contorted and tilted into the shape of a scream.
For many years, scientists assumed her face was shaped this way as a result of a poorly-done mummification – however, her burial was revealed to be incredibly lavish.
Buried among expensive imported materials, including frankincense and juniper resin, the woman was fitted with a wig fashioned from date-palm fibres, dyed with expensive reddish henna and covered in crystallite powder.
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Another unanswered question came from the fact her internal organs remained inside her body, despite traditions, with no incision mark left on her stomach.
Researchers, including a mummy radiologist at Cairo University, hoped to prove these theories by conducting X-rays and CT scans on the woman to assess her physical conditions.
After the analysis, scientists believed the woman may have the expression of someone in severe pain, or experiencing something called a ‘cadaveric spasm’.
A study published in Frontiers in Medicine said: “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.
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“Embalmers likely mummified the contracted body of the woman…before it decomposed or relaxed, thus preserving her opened mouth position at death.
“It is also possible that the contracted muscles must have prevented embalmers from closing the mouth.”
This conclusion suggests that, however the woman died, embalmers worked quick enough to preserve the body before her muscles relaxed.
If this interpretation is indeed correct, Egyptian embalmers have managed to preserve this woman’s agonising end of her life for many years to come.