Emily Chan
During an expedition to Egypt in 1935, archaeologists from the Metropolitan Museum of New York unearthed a mummified woman from Deir el-Bahari, a tomb complex located in the Thebian necropolis.
The mummy was buried in a wooden coffin, wearing a black wig and two rings made of jasper. Her mouth was locked open as if she was permanently screaming in horror. She has been dubbed the “Screaming Woman.”
When the mummy was first found, experts theorized that she may have been mummified poorly, which could explain why she died with such a horrifying expression on her face.
Others speculated that the embalmers may have simply neglected to close her mouth before her burial about 2,500 years ago.
Recent scans have revealed that most of her internal organs are still present, adding to the mystery of it all.
Researchers from Cairo University and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt conducted an investigation into the case, and they believe the woman died in agony—just not from poor mummification.
“Here, we show that she was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material,” Sahar Saleem, a study author and a radiologist professor at Cairo University’s Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, said.
“This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification.”
In the study, Saleem took CT scans of the Screaming Woman’s remains. She also used several other non-invasive techniques to analyze the materials used in the embalming process.
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