The woman of the "screaming" A mummy from Ancient Egypt may have died in agony, BTA reports, referring to a new study published in the journal "Frontiers in Medicine".
The startling-looking mummy was discovered during an archaeological expedition in 1935 at Deir el-Bahri near Luxor and represents a woman with her mouth wide open as if giving an agonizing scream.
Scientists now have an explanation for the 'Screaming Woman' mummy after using CT scans to perform a 'virtual dissection'. It turns out that she may have died in agony and experienced a rare form of muscle stiffness known as cadaveric spasm, which occurs at the moment of death.
The study shows that the woman was about 48 years old when she died, had been living with mild spinal arthritis and had lost some teeth, said lead author Sahar Salem, a professor of radiology at Cairo University.
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Her well-preserved body was embalmed around 3,500 years ago during the glorious New Kingdom period in ancient Egypt using expensive imported ingredients such as juniper oil and frankincense resin, Salem adds.
Ancient Egyptians believed that preserving the body after death was crucial to ensuring a dignified existence in the afterlife, adds Reuters.
During the mummification process, it was customary to remove the internal organs, except for the heart, but this was not the case with this woman.
"In Ancient Egypt embalmers took care of the dead body to make it look beautiful for the afterlife. "That is why they sought to close the mouths of the dead by tying the jaw to the head to prevent it from falling normally after death," explains Salem.
The quality of the ingredients used rules out the possibility that the mummification process was sloppy and the embalmers simply neglected to seal the woman's mouth. In fact, they mummified her well and provided her with elaborate burial accessories - two expensive rings of gold and silver and a long wig made of date palm fiber.
This raises the possibility that there are other explanations for the woman's wide-open mouth - that she died screaming in agony or pain, and that the facial muscles contracted to maintain this appearance at the time of death as a result of cadaveric spasm, explains Salem.
"The true story or circumstances of this woman's death are unknown, therefore the cause of her screaming face cannot be determined with certainty,", the head of the study also said.
Corporal spasm, a poorly understood condition, occurs after severe physical or emotional suffering, with contracted muscles becoming rigid immediately after death, Reuters notes.
Unlike rigor mortis, cadaveric spasm affects only one group of muscles, not the entire body, Salem explains.
The research also reveals details about the mummy's wig. Her tiles have been treated with the minerals quartz, magnetite and albite to harden them and give them the black color indicative of youth. Her natural hair was dyed with henna and juniper oil.
Many ancient mummies have been found in Egypt and America with "screaming" facial expressions that are strongly reminiscent of the famous painting "The Cry" of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, notes Reuters.