With her mouth wide open, forever locked in what seemed like a scream, an ancient Egyptian woman captured the imagination of archaeologists who discovered her mummified remains in a tomb near Luxor in 1935.
Still fascinated by the "screaming woman" who died some 3,500 years ago, another team of scientists recently used CT scans to reveal details about the mummy's morphology, health and preservation, and used infrared imaging and other advanced techniques to "virtually dissect" the remains and understand what might have caused her striking facial expression.
Their findings, published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, revealed the woman was 48 years old when she died, based on analysis of a pelvic joint that changes with age. Certain aspects of the process used to mummify her stood out.
Her body was embalmed with frankincense and juniper resin, expensive, precious substances traded from far away, Sahar Saleem, the study's author and a professor of radiology at Cairo University's Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, said in a statement.
Saleem also found no incisions in the body, which matched the assessment made upon the original discovery: the brain, diaphragm, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys and intestines were still present.
The study found that not removing the internal organs was unusual, as the classic mummification method of the time involved removing all organs except the heart.
The researchers found that the unnamed woman was 1.54 meters tall, or just over 5 feet, and suffered from mild arthritis of the spine, with scans revealing bony spurs on some of the vertebrae that make up the backbone. Several teeth, likely lost before death, were also missing from the woman's jaw.
However, the investigation could not determine an exact cause of death.
"Here we show that she was embalmed with precious, imported embalming materials," Saleem said in a press release.
"This, and the well-preserved appearance of the mummy, contradicts the traditional view that failure to remove her internal organs constituted poor mummification."
The research shows that only a few mummies from ancient Egypt have been found with their mouths open. Embalmers typically wrapped the jaw and skull to keep the deceased's mouth closed.
What caused the woman's horrifying expression is unclear from the study results. However, the researchers did come up with a chilling hypothesis.
What mummification techniques reveal
Saleem said the well-preserved nature of the mummy, the rarity and high cost of the embalming materials, along with other burial techniques such as the use of a wig made from a date palm and rings placed on the body, ruled out a sloppy mummification process in which the embalmers neglected to close her mouth.
According to the study, the mummy's "screaming facial expression" could be interpreted as a death spasm, a rare form of muscle stiffening associated with violent deaths, meaning the woman died screaming in pain.
It's possible, the study authors suggested, that she was mummified within 18 to 36 hours of her death, before her body relaxed or decomposed, leaving her mouth open at death.
However, the research shows that a mummy's facial expression does not necessarily indicate how a person felt when they died.
Several other factors, including the decomposition process, the rate of dehydration, and the compressive strength of the wrappings, can all affect a mummy's facial appearance.
"Burial procedures or post-mortem changes may have contributed to the phenomenon of mummies with screaming appearances," the authors noted in the study.
"The cause or true history or circumstances of this woman's death are unknown, therefore the cause of her screaming facial expression cannot be determined with certainty," Saleem said via email.
Mummies with open mouths
The "screaming woman" was buried beneath the tomb of Senmut, an architect of the temple of Egyptian Queen Hatschepsut (1479-1458 BCE) who held important positions during her reign. The woman is believed to be related to Senmut, the study said.
The discovery of her remains occurred during an expedition led by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and her coffin is on display there today. Her mummified body is preserved in the Cairo Egyptian Museum.
Saleem said she had previously studied two other open-mouthed mummies from ancient Egypt.
One, a mummy believed to be the remains of a prince known as Pentawere, had his throat slit for his role in the assassination of his father, Ramesses III (1185-1153 B.C.E.). His body was barely embalmed, indicating a lack of care in the mummification process, Saleem said in the press release.
The second mummy was a woman known as Princess Meritamun. She died of a heart attack. Saleem's analysis showed that her wide mouth was the result of a post-mortem contraction or movement of her jaw.
Randall Thompson, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine who has studied ancient mummies using CT scans to learn more about the origins of heart disease, called the study useful and detailed. He said the authors' preferred explanation for the mummy's open mouth "made sense."
"Their research helps us understand what substances were available in ancient times and how our ancestors used them," said Thompson, who was not involved in the study.
"More broadly, we can learn a lot about health and disease from studying ancient mummies," he added.
"For example, we have learned that heart disease is not new, as many people used to think. It is literally older than Moses."
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